During our 12 years on the road, we have enjoyed rides on several trains, but after our trip today we decided that the Durango Silverton RR gave us the best ride. We arrived at the Durango station this morning for our 8:45 leave time. The 50 mile trip to Silverton takes 4 hours. That may seem very slow, but we needed plenty of time to take in all the scenery.
The train offers two kinds of seating: forward facing, comfortable seats in enclosed cars, or side facing bench seats in open cars. We opted for the open cars so that we could enjoy the whole experience.
The train also offers restrooms, of course, and a concession car with a range of snacks—sweet, salty, healthy, and a range of drinks from alcoholic to water if passengers didn’t want to bring their own. Passengers could get their water bottles refilled for free.
There were advantages and disadvantages to both kinds of seating. In the cars the seats were more comfortable, the train noises weren’t as loud, the restrooms were in the cars. There were several people who walked the train talking with passengers, making announcements and answering questions, but they spent most of their time in the enclosed cars giving short informative talks, I think perhaps because the cars were quieter and they could be heard.
The cars had other advantages. The windows opened at the bottom to let in cool air, but not the smoke and cinders. The disadvantage was that the view was limited to the small windows and the seating made it hard to take good pictures.
In the gondolas we faced the scenery which was clearly visible through the open sides of the cars. It was easier to move around to see the best scenes and get the best photos. Some people were content to relax
and take the scenery as it came.
Most people opted to stand and move from side to side where the scenery was best. The first hour or so of the ride was through the town of Durango and along the Animas River valley. Here, oddly enough, we found the most wildlife: a coyote,
prairie dogs (none pictured here in their town), and a deer back at the tree line.
Riding outside had other plusses/minuses—depending on your outlook. We could smell the fresh air and smoke as it blew back, we could feel the cool air, the steam spray, and cinders (accumulated on the seat in the pic below), we could hear those wonderful train sounds—the clang and grind of the couplings and wheels, the chuff-chuff of the engine, and that wonderful whistle, but talking was difficult, we were free to move around as we wished, as long as we could sway with the gondola. We liked all of the above and considered it part of the whole narrow gauge train experience.
The average speed of the train was about 10-12 mph several reasons: in town and for several miles outside the city limits there were numerous crossings,
there were several stops—to pick up or drop off passengers at several points (here we dropped off several back country hikers, and picked up others on the way back),
for train maintenance such as taking on water (here we amused ourselves by watching these butterflies in the bushes by the water tower),
or blowing off steam to clear impurities from the boiler,
and to add or take off an extra engine as needed to climb slopes.
At first the tracks followed along US 550, (part of the San Juan Skyway that we took to Silverton on our Sunday bike ride—see Rocky Mountain Highs blog), but as we climbed, the railroad moved north behind the mountain and 550 disappeared.
As we climbed the terrain became more rugged and the scenery more spectacular.
Sometimes the mountain was close on one side
and fell away on the other.
Waterfalls appeared out of nowhere.
Aspen and spruce clad mountains towered over us.
The open cars made travel especially interesting for young passengers, but after three hours of excitement, these guys had had enough.
Not us, though. We didn’t want to miss a thing.
Next, Silverton.
Louise and Duane
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