Ridgway news and RR Days Sept 24 - 25

1) Today we took delivery of a restored 1968 Plymouth 5-ton gas-hydraulic switcher, painted Baldwin green, thanks to the efforts of Karl Schaeffer and Chris Wieser. Initial test runs included pulling our rider gondola 1020 (former Georgetown Loop car) around our 1/2 mile operations loop, then pulling D&RG caboose 19/0575 around the loop. This is the first time the caboose has been pulled by any kind of locomotive in 69 years - video will be posted on our facebook page. We also moved RGS coach 252 about 4 feet on its own new trucks, will experiment with moving it more once we get the switcher dialed in. We hope to start carrying passengers in the gondola on Saturday, as well as the usual Motor 1 and T.

2) So far this season we have given 1237 free rides in either Goose 4, Motor 1 or (Model T) Inspection Car 1. We will continue to offer free rides 9 am - 2 pm every Saturday through mid-October, with four more bus tours and other school tours scheduled as well. We expect to move Goose 4 back to Ridgway from Telluride about Labor Day weekend.

3) Ouray County Railroad Days will be held September 24 and 25 this year, with rides both days on all of our vehicles, a guided car tour of the Ouray Branch route of the D&RG from Colona to Ouray on Saturday afternoon, and a lecture on Saturday night. As always, these events are free (with donations accepted, of course). Due to Don Paulson being out of town that weekend, there will be no hikes on Red Mountain or tours of his model layout this year, but we should be doing them again next year.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/09/2022 06:58PM by jgp1843.