We Ride This Work Train Through The Colorado Rockies

For the second part of our trip of Spring on the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, we chase and hop aboard Dak Dillon’s (@dakdillonphotography) and his “Steam Charters Hosted by Dak Dillon” (https://steamcharters.com/) “Work Train on The Silverton” charter. This trip featured K-36 # 480 pulling a mixed work train with two hoppers that started in the wilds of the East Coast in Pennsylvania on the East Broad Top Railroad. Following these transplants from the east are native flatcars and a gondola from the D&RGW. We chase from under the shadow of the Strater Hotel (the actual interior of the “El Tovar” at the Grand Canyon in “National Lampoon’s Vacation” (seriously, it really was) and the prow of Perrin’s Peak in Downtown Durango. We move northward to Oxbow Park and Preserve and round Animas City Mountain and enter the Hermosa Valley and fly past Trimble Hot Springs (I refuse to call it by it’s new name… “Durango Hot Springs”). After taking on water at Hermosa, the train climbs up the Hermosa Hill and comes above Shalona Lake rounding Granite Point. After Rockwood, we ease out on to the World Famous Horseshoe Curve (the more photographed one) and span the High Line. We pass through Tefft deep in the canyon near Purgatory Ski Area. After Tefft, we head to Needleton, where many a backpacker jumps off The Silverton to trek out into the Needle Mountains and the scenic Chicago Basin. At Needlton, we take the hole (the siding for the non-railroad terminology) for train 463 led by K-37 # 493 built from an old standard gauge locomotive (oh, here’s a @Hyce video on why they’re not converted). After The Silverton Mixed passes us, we head south and even hop into the Doghouse, the brakeman’s shanty on the tender deck. We leap over the Rio De Las Animas Perdidas on the tallest bridge on the line before returning to the Horseshoe Curve. Finally, we end back as train rolls through the Rockwood Cut, a landmark seen in ‘Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid’ where Robert Redford’s ‘Sundance Kid’ leaps onto the Union Pacific’s ‘Overland Flyer’ powered by one of the three remaining K-28’s. So let’s leave the Yard Limit of Durango, no need to be delay in block because there’s no distant signal, light up the headlight so the dynamo production of electricity can light our way. 00:06 Intro 01:16 Oxbow Park 02:00 Hermosa Valley 02:39 Hermosa 03:40 Milepost 463 04:43 Granite Point 06:50 The World Famous Horseshoe Curve (Part One) 10:45 Cement Wall (Part One) 11:59 Tefft 12:46 Near Needleton 13:56 Needleton 15:21 Meet with 463 16:32 Riding the Platform 17:37 Cement Wall (Part Deux) 19:46 Stuck in The Doghouse 21:29 Tacoma High Bridge 23:20 The World Famous Horseshoe Curve (Part Deux) 26:50 Leaving The High Line 28:11 Rockwood Cut