Rocks, trees hamper train ride *LINK*

June 7, 2007
By Dale Rodebaugh | Herald Staff Writer
Powerful winds on Wednesday ambushed the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, sending boulders and trees crashing onto the track and onto at least two railcars - canceling a scenic 45-mile ride for three trainloads and two busloads of visitors.
Eric Drayner, a civil engineer with the California Department of Transportation, and his wife, Yvette, left Durango at 9:45 a.m. on the third train of the day.
"They stopped us at Cascade about 12:30 p.m., and a conductor told us that boulders had closed the track up the line," Eric Drayner said. "Our train backed up and parked on the wye (siding)."
The Drayners walked around a few minutes and then went to the concessions car. They had barely placed their order when they heard a thud.
"The wind was really whipping," Drayner said. "Two trees on the river side of the track with weak root systems fell and hit a gondola car immediately ahead of the concessions car."
A Pullman two cars ahead of the gondola was struck by a single falling tree.
Paul Schrank, D&SNGR vice president and general manager, said the problem started when a pair of boulders - he estimated them at 6-feet by 6-feet - closed the track near Elk Park, a few miles south of Silverton. The first train was about 20 minutes outside Silverton at the time, he said.
The operator of a small motorized railcar that always precedes trains discovered the blockage and sounded the alert, Schrank said.
A speed swing - a rail-mounted loader - removed trees that had fallen across the track behind the convoys, allowing the trains to reverse course at sidings at Elk Park and Cascade, Schrank said.
On the return, members of their train crew had to remove trees from the track twice, Yvette Drayner said.
Two busloads of visitors who took U.S. Highway 550 to Silverton expecting to ride the train back to Durango were disappointed, too. They returned the way they went - on rubber tires.
Eric Drayner said he has wanted to ride the D&SNGR since he saw a documentary about the line 25 years ago.
"We had more adventure than we expected today," he said. "But we're going to be back on board tomorrow."
Drayner praised the way the train crews handled the situation.
"They were Johnny-on-the-spot," Drayner said.