Thanks for the info. Looks like we were a week too late for some things and a week too early for others, but it was a pretty good trip overall. We covered a lot of ground in 4 days - probably more than we should have attempted - but we got to see a lot of our favorite sites. This was the first time my wife and I had been back in Colorado in 8 years and it was the first time for our kids (a 6yo boy and a 3yo girl). It was good to get back and see how things have changed. Georgetown Loop was pretty much as I remember it. The #14 (exWestside Lumber shay) was running Friday 1 Sept. Saw the new display building, but C&S #9 was still on the siding just South of Silver Plume. It looked like some work had been done on the #9 since I last saw it up close (1990). As I recall, part of the right side of the cab was gone back in 1990 and it looked like that has now been repaired. I don't remember the two GE diesels, #130 and #140, from my last visit in 1990 - they looked like they might be NG 70tonners, but I didn't inquire or look at them very closely. Anybody know the specifics on them?
I was impressed with the Rotary display at Breckenridge. It is in a great location, too - right at the take off point for the Boreas Pass Route. Good job!
I was VERY impressed by the work that has been done at Como. Last time I saw the Como Roundhouse (1990), it was little more than a stone ruins in danger of imminent collapse. Since there was no one around (late Friday afternoon), we didn't cross the fence to get a close look, but someone has done a magnificent job of saving and restoring the roundhouse. It looked so good I almost expected to see smoke coming out of it from a simmering locomotive. If the current owner ever wants to start putting down some track, I know of a source of 60# rail if you don't mind having to haul it from Illinois.
I think my kids had more fun riding the wooden hobby horse on the porch of the general store than in seeing a historic site. By the way, thank you to the unknown owner of the 2 horses on the outskirts of town - petting them brought a lot of joy to my daughter.
We tried to beat the Sun to Alpine, but didn't make it. In fact our last pictures of the day were at Hancock and it was pitch black by the time we got to the top of Hancock Pass. Driving up the Palisades in darkness just isn't the same as when you can see that you are 1000 feet above the valley floor. Although we couldn't see much, it was nice to see track up at Alpine. We were really surprised to see how much work has been done to clear rock and debris out of the cut leading to the West Portal of the tunnel. At first glance, it appeared that the tunnel might have been opened up, but after some very cautious probing with my foot, it was obvious that the entrance was still covered. That was about all the railroad adventure the wife and kids could take for one day, so we tied up in Gunnison for the night.
Saturday, we were off for Lake City, Animas Forks (via Cinnamon Pass), Silverton, and Durango. I've never been too successful in spotting the old D&RG grade to Lake City - I assume that it is deep in the canyon and can't be seen from the road. A little closer to Lake City, there are a few spots where old railroad ties can be seen sticking out of an embankment above the river. We didn't spend any time trying to find traces of the railroad in town - the only thing we saw there of a railroad nature was the D&RG caboose that is on display.
The Cinnamon Pass road to Animas Forks is a highly scenic drive and there were a lot of campers nearly all along the route. It looked as if some fresh snow had fallen at the higher elevations. I noticed that a couple of new buildings had been constructed at Animas Forks since I had last been there (1991). We got to Silverton in time to see the 2nd train arrive, pulled by #482. The 1st train, behind #481, had already backed into the tail of the wye. #480 did the honors for the 3rd train. For some reason, Silverton just didn't have the same feel it did the last time I was there (1992) - maybe it was just me, but the mine closure has probably had an impact on the community. We also noticed that there were a lot of Harley's in town and discovered that Labor Day weekend was the date of an Annual Harley-Davidson bike rally in the 4-corners area. There were supposed to be about 30000 bikers in the area for the event. That would cause us trouble getting a hotel for the evening as everything was booked for 100 miles around Durango. (We ended up staying in the Palace Hotel in Antonito that evening. It is run by a nice Mexican lady and her husband and they went out of their way to accommodate us). We stayed in Silverton long enough to catch the first two return trains, then beat the first train back to Rockwood. Some time ago in this discussion group, someone reported that the #490's cab was at Rockwood. I had some time to look around before "train time" but I didn't see anything that looked like a locomotive cab. Did I overlook it or has it been moved somewhere else? After we caught the 1st return train at Rockwood, we followed and paced it all the way back to Durango. Unfortunately, all the Harleys driving up and down Rte 550 added a lot of unwanted background noise to the sound track. I probably won't get much of the train sounds on the tape. We "found" a nice photo location to shoot the train crossing the Animas River in Durango. The City has a little park and an arched footbridge across the river right next to the D&S's bridge, complete with a couple of platforms built to observe the train. There are also some plaques commemorating the 1911 flood and some history of an early local settler. We toured the D&S's museum (the storage portion of the new roundhouse). I thought their museum was very nicely done and worth the $5 we paid to get in. The tenderless #476 was on display as well as the RGS #42. #42 was done up nicely, with the RGS "sunrise" herald, looking like it was ready to power the next train to Dolores. When I saw it in 1990 during a roundhouse tour, it was partially disassembled and was a pretty sorry sight. I'm glad the D&S at least cosmetically restored the engine so it doesn't look like junk. We could see the #486 dead in the working roundhouse, along with the #473 and #478 (also both dead). We got done touring the roundhouse just as the 2nd train, with the #482, came rolling into town. The left piston rod was blowing so badly I doubt that it could have had much piston packing left. Hope the shop crew was able to get it fixed before the next day's operation. Then we were off to Antonito.
Sunday morning, we watched the C&TS crew getting the #489 ready at the Antonito terminal for the train to Chama, but left so we could get to Chama before the Eastbound train departed (for Antonito). We were pleased to find 3 engines under steam in Chama - the #463, #487, and #497. The #487 was on the train and the #497 was being readied as the helper engine for the hill. As train time approached, we got situated at the first grade crossing outside Chama and paced the train up to Cumbres. The two engines put on a great show and it was the first time I had seen #497 run on the C&TS. Last time I saw the #497 (1990), it was on the 4th train to Silverton in "the hole" at Elk Park waiting for our Southbound train (the first train) to pass. It was good to see it where it belongs - on Cumbres. For some reason, the train made an unscheduled stop a couple of miles below Cresco for about 10-15 minutes. Then the engines gathered slack and started again, running all the way to the summit without further delay. Anyone here know what happened? Despite the unscheduled stop, it was magnificent. Good work guys! We caught the Eastbound at a few more places (Los Pinos, Osier and Sublette), then had to head back to Denver to catch a plane the next afternoon.
On the way back, we stopped off at Alamosa to see the depot and found it in great condition. It is obviously being used by someone and being well maintained. There is also a plaque at the SW corner of the building which pays tribute to the D&RG and its impact on the region. Traveling North from Alamosa along the Valley Line makes one understand why train crews used to fall asleep at the throttle on this run. Traveling straight and level through a semi-arid wasteland at a plodding 10-15mph (despite the beauty of the Sange de Christo range) must have been terribly monotonous. Even the Northbound climb to Poncha Pass couldn't have been very exciting, although I'm sure the 3% grade kept the engine crew busy. The route on the way down to Salida was a different matter as much of it was on a shelf and followed the hillside pretty closely. This was the first time we had crossed Poncha Pass in the daylight so we could see the ROW nearly all the way down to Mears Jct. Most of the rest of our trip to Golden via Rt 285 and Kenosha Pass was in darkness.
The next morning, we spent about an hour at the Colorado Railway Museum. The last time I was there was in 1992 and I noticed many improvements, including the new library and roundhouse. We couldn't stay long as we had to turn in our rental SUV by 11:30am, but we saw the highlights and gave the kids one last chance to find there way into grease (much to the chagrin of my lovely wife). I can hardly wait to watch the videos and get our "still's" back.
T.E. Scott Jr.
