Re: Clearing the Line, Just like the Old Days

Greg, I knew where you were coming from. I once saw a guy over on the C&TS on Cumbres, get a shovel out of his car and piled up snow on the highway crossing for a shot of the plow hitting snow.

I did shoot road crossing shots, but was not cheating, did not pile the snow myself. Colorado Department of Transportation did it for me. Actually it snowed enough along the D&S that there was a low of plowing before the road crossings.


I got knocked on my rear while shooting video of one of the flanger trains. There was a high berm on one of the ranch side roads and I thought I was clear, but I was buried over my knees when the flanger hit the berm. The video including me getting buried was posted on the D&S Facebook page.


There was a lot of snow on the line north of Rockwood and 476 had to work hard to push thru some deep spots. It was not safe for me to get off the caboose, so no photos of the plowing.


1952 was a bad year on the D&RGW. The events on Cumbres have been well documented. The D&RGW standard gauge was hit hard too. Wedge Plow 066 was destroyed at South Fork on the Creede Branch when a C48 was pushing it on the wye. Bob Richardson shot this photo earlier.



The derailment of 476 on the Silverton happened when the train ran over a broken rail, Flanger OH caught the rail and pulled it up.