We run daily service to Cascade through the first weekend in January. After that we run Wed-Sat until March. The Alamosa is available daily. I think the tickets are around 60
dollars for it.
Josh
This thread pulled me back to the D&SNG, causing me to make my own quick trip to Durango!
I was in Denver last week for business. After wrapping up work Thursday afternoon, I drove straight to Pagosa Springs, stayed the night, then
headed over to Durango.
I wasn't sure I would actually be able to make it all the way to Durango in time for Friday's train,
so I decided that I'd devote Friday to chasing instead of riding. I also figured there would be more mid-day roadway traffic on Saturday, making a Friday chase easier.
I ended up making to Durango in time to get some shots of the crew putting #481 on the train, before I headed over to the "Yard Limit" sign just past the first Animas River crossing. As I chased the train out of town, I noticed that there weren't a lot of passengers on the train and the Alamosa looked completely empty. After the train passed at my final shot (just south of Rockwood), I spent a few minutes trackside studying the 1:1 scale rock castings, making mental references for future model railroad scenery.
As I was studying the rockwork, a pair of track inspectors came through on a speeder. One of them made some hand signals to me, so I spent some
more minutes trackside and was able to get some shots of a piece of D&SNG heavy equipment hirailing up the line. Thank you Mr. Track
Inspector for that heads-up!
I then doubled back to Durango to check on #315, have lunch and get a ticket on the Alamosa for the next day. This left just enough time to
head up to Rockwood and meet the returning train. After getting back to town, the crew started switching and put the General Palmer on the back
of train.
Saturday was my ride day. I'd booked an $89 First Class ticket (instead of the $45 regular ticket) which got me on the Alamosa. I'd seen the Alamosa go by many times, but this was the first time I'd been aboard it. It is a beautiful car and its onboard attendant was great. There were only 8
or 9 of us onboard the Alamosa. The rest of the train seemed to only be about 1/2 full.
The General Palmer had been added to the train because Al Harper and his family/friends were riding that day. This meant that the Alamosa was
not the last car and our view from the back platform was obstructed by the General Palmer, but those negatives were more than offset by Mr.
Harper coming into our car, introducing himself, welcoming everyone, then inviting us to come back and check out the General Palmer.
I was really impressed by Mr. Harper's mini-talk. He mentioned the various 175th anniversaries coming up and how he and Mrs. Harper (the
only other stockholder) view themselves as caretakers more than owners. He mentioned some things they have planned for the future, then answered a couple questions from passengers on the Alamosa; one lady (from Albuquerque, if I recall correctly) actually brought up the "dirty smoke" issue. Mr. Harper responded to this by explaining all the railroad has done to address the issue, including spending a million dollars (or more?) on diesels.
We got back to Durango, I checked out the museum and noticed some new (to me) exhibits in it, including a Sn3 model railorad. I took a few more pictures, then headed for a long, hot shower at my hotel. I then spent Sunday taking the long way back to Denver and eventually got on the 12:40 AM Monday morning redeye back to Atlanta.
I can now check "ridden the Alamosa" of my to-do list, but I am also writing in "ride the Alamosa while it is bringing up the markers"...
--
Chris Webster
[www.speakeasy.org]
