Re: Some more speculation

Jon Walden Wrote:
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> Water rights could also play a big role too. I
> don't know whether or not the railroad had any in
> Silverton. The D&RG did have a small engine house
> next to the scale track for awhile, and I believe
> a switch engine was assigned (probably off and on)
> for a period. It would seem silly to have such a
> moderate facility without a steady water source.
> Maybe that building was also plumbed for water
> with an underground line? I don't know.

Like mentioned in Dick Bells post, no water rights were sold to the D&S North of Needleton and the water right to the flume was just temporary. When the flume got washed out in 1970 the D&RGW probably decided to take the risk of no water between Needleton and Silverton City Limits, just to find that the K-28s could easily handle that and back to Needleton.

It is strange that the D&RG would set up a yard like Silverton without a watertank, there still must be something we don't know.
Was there something preventing them from building a tank in Silverton? (Like failing to receive water rights somehow?)
If they had city water to the engine houses in the area, then what was the point of sending locomotives down to the tank?
Durango would have gotten city water too at some point, and yet they still preferred to pump water from the animas to their tank until 1968 when the plans were being made to cut off the Silverton branch and the tank was torn down, which was probably how they and the D&S receive city water today?