Luckily for me, my boss scheduled a team meeting in Lakewood for all day Thursday and the first half of Friday. This allowed me to get out to Durango and ride the special even though I live in Atlanta, Georgia. I spent Friday afternoon driving down to Durango. (I managed to hit a snowstorm while descending Wolf Creek pass, but luckily for me I grew up in upstate NY and spent 10 years living in both Syracuse and Buffalo, so I am not completely clueless about driving in snow.) After riding the special on Saturday, I then spent Sunday afternoon chasing a couple coal trains between Delta and Somerset and eventually made it back to Denver in time to get on the 12:40 am (Monday morning) redeye back to Atlanta.
Unfortunately, as the plane pushed back from the terminal, some wack-job ran up to the stewardess and began ranting about how the plane couldn't be moved, that he needed to speak to the captain, he had to get off, etc., all because of another person on the plane was acting suspicious... that killed any hope I'd had of being able to sleep on the flight back to Atlanta.
I had a blast riding the special, but I heard others complaining about two things. First, putting an open car next to the caboose really ruined the view from the cupola. (The open cars are taller than the enclosed cars.) This issue only impacted the eight of us riding #0500, so it wasn't a concern for the other 100-something riders on the train.
The second complaint was that the sun was "on the wrong side" at several of the runbys. I don't really think this is a valid criticism. On past trips to the D&SNG, I've realized that it can be really difficult to photograph in the canyon because of the canyon walls -- if the sun is out, the sun is *directly* overhead.
The crew and volunteers did an excellent job of establishing and enforcing the photo lines. The only footprints showing up in the photographs were from wildlife. The photo stops were at locations that would have been very difficult to get at on foot, even in summertime, so that was a positive.
--
Chris Webster
[www.speakeasy.org]
