Durango & Silverton Railroad – Part 1, with Driver, Passenger and Line-side Views

This was the railroad I visited Colorado to see and it was everything and more than I was expecting. I arrived in Durango the day before I was due to ride the train giving me a chance to explore the town before wandering down to the railway station to see the last train of the day arrive. There was a real Wild West feel to both the station and the town, a bunch of cowboys tethering their horses and heading into one of the saloons was all that was missing. There is an excellent museum at the station with a viewing area for watching the locomotives being turned and parked up in the iconic half round house. The following day, I watched the first train of the day make its noisy departure before taking a seat on the train that was about to take me on a breath taking journey along a narrow ledge cut into a sheer cliff face far above the Animas River, it’s no wonder this section is referred to as the ‘High Line’. For the first half hour or so the train follows an easy route along the wide valley floor with high mountains either side to Hermosa, from here on the line starts to climb and we get our first taste of what is to come as pass high above Shalona Lake and enter the tree lined Rockwood Gorge to Rockwood where there is a depot with an assortment of track maintenance wagons and vehicles. The line continues along the valley side to a small cutting, at the entrance of which there is a sign informing passengers we are entering ‘San Juan National Forest’ a short gap in the cutting side leaves my fellow passengers gasping as they get the first sight of the Animas River, just a silver ribbon at bottom of a stupendous steep sided canyon, we emerge slowly from the cutting onto tiny ledge that seems way too small for our substantial train, the views are stunning, beyond my powers of description. We steam cautiously along the narrow ledge to cross the canyon on the aptly named ‘High Bridge’ where the engine driver sends a jet of steam across the river gorge creating a brightly colored rainbow. The railway gradually descends to run next to the pretty mountain river to Tacoma where Part 1 of this journey ends. Lookout for Part 2.

Music - ES_Tombstone Desperados 3. Örjan Karlsson – epidemicsound.com

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