ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 ก.ย. 2024
- We join Jon and John (@JaiahHazelnutBrown) as we venture into the seemingly impenetrable Animas River Canyon on what will be our final trip in the cab on the Durango and Silverton’s mainline rails with a coal fire in the heart of the beast. We start in Durango at the depot where trains have left from here since 1881 and move past the Strater Hotel (filming locale for the ‘El Tovar’ lobby in ‘National Lampoon’s Vacation’ serious, look it up). We roll over the Rio de Las Animas Perdidas, the River of Los Souls. We’re behind historic, vintage ALCO diesel 103 from the White Pass and Yukon (“actually it’s a ‘Montreal Locomotive Works’ or an “MLW” there Diehl”… I don’t care, we’re calling it an Alco)
We climb the hill at Hermosa and venture into the canyon below the snowy slopes of Purgatory Ski Resort.
Featuring a cameo from @YardLimit (bruh, Diehl, that’s just the Durango “Yard Limit” sign, that’s not the famed videographer…)
This is an historic video, many thanks for capturing the event. I am so pleased to have have ridden on the D & S in the old coal fired days.
A fantastic video from the cab of a coal-fired steam locomotive. ⚒⚒ Simply excellently filmed. Thanks for showing and best regards from Germany
Thanks for capturing such an awesome video about the 481 as a cold burner! I got to fire this engine many times over the years as a fireman and loved the memories of getting to work on the D&S! Would have been neat to get back there more recently to see it myself but that’s what your videos are for 😉 great work 🤘
Glad you got to do this! Thanks for the cameo, too!
This is an interesting train ride. It also the closing of an era for the Durango and Silverton Railroad burning coal in its steam locomotives. The 416 Fire in that area changed things. Because the climate in the area is becoming more dry, it was necessary for the Durango and Silverton railroad to convert its steam locomotives from burning coal to burning oil to reduce the fire hazard of its locomotives starting line side fires.
I think it was the fireman who carried the steam whistle back through the train for us to see after the nipple attaching it to the boiler rusted in two on the way back to Durango from Silverton. While we were in Silverton, we could see steam leaking out of the hole in the nipple which, on the way back, finally gave way.
I was a UPS tractor trailer driver for 41 years. They always ran the exhaust pipe down on the ground like a car, they didnt want their trailers getting the black smoke stain from a normal tractor exhaust pipe that goes up in the air. We had to get out and hook trailers all the time with that smoke pumping out all around us, trailers were only about 3 feet apart on the load walls. Around 2003 they went to normal exhaust pipes going up in the air. So Im really used to diesel smoke/exhaust. Two years ago I rode behind the diesel to Silverton, it was the only tickets we could get. We sat in the open air gondola and it was terrible. The diesel smoke was just gagging, almost impossible to take. I dont mind that they have switched to oil after the big fire, if thats the only way to appease the locals and keep running, plus avoid super high insurance fees. But I sure do miss coal smoke.
Those Pullman cars are beautiful. Nice train ya got there.
Thanks very much. I would have loved to have ridden behind a coal fired engine on the D&S but times are changing and this is one change that a higher power is in charge of.
But they're still have coal burning steam trains at the Strasburg railroad which is located in Pennsylvania, and my favorite route of New Mexico and Colorado is the Cumbres and Toltec scenic Railroad which they still have a coal burning even though they take precautions and it is still safe.
It’s only safe some of the time, they definitely start fires, including one lineside that I had to help extinguish because the fire patrol was nowhere, or even possibly not operating.
Fireman shoveling coal, does he not change hands? When I shove and toss snow, a lot of it, I change hands regularly to even out the strain.
The general running speed seems a little faster than I remember seeing; is that due to the assist from that beautiful ALCO or is this standard running? Great job!
Light train and overpowered with the Alco made a quick run up the hill.
I have ridden the D S R R many times in the past 15 years. Never seen a Diesel loco coupled with a steam loco before. Reason?
Fire danger… high winds and a lack of snow before this cold front had actually made it very flammable outside. Hence the reason the Cumbres and Toltec and the D&S are converting to oil.
Are they converting the k31 or scraping it
Of course it’s another conversion thankfully, so it can run year-round in this dry environment
@@Big_Diehl❤
What was the purpose of the diesel on this trip?
To help 481 pull the train up the hills.
@Nkp757railfan fire danger
How is The Engineer of 481 running with NO GLOVES????
I’ve been doing that for like 16 years, I hate wearing gloves.
I am against the oil conversion. But the enemies of the Durango and Silverton had the upper hand.
You mean nature and drying out of the landscape?
Would have happened anyway, and probably should have been done a good decade earlier, but fortunately the right people were in charge when the conversions were designed and implemented.
@fesaueryeig 😂
Enemies? So you're ok with millions of tax payer dollars being spent to fight the fires this private for-profit company kept starting, not to mention the enormous amounts of resource damage to both public and private land. All so you can have your quaint little train ride 😂
This negligent company is lucky somebody didn't get killed in their last blaze.
What a shame that #481 is turned into oil. You could have left it for winter trips. A million dollars to convert. This RR, be making lots of money to convert it. It’s a shame you did this. Glad Cumbers and Toltec still have almost all coal trains. 🚂. Cumbres is a better ride too. I’ll never ride this train ever again.
No, it’s not a shame. Are you saying they should waste money by parking a valuable piece of equipment because they can only run it for three months a year, using up valuable time on its 15 year boiler ticket? It was stupid lucky the snow even happened for these last runs, as 481 had to have a diesel because of how dry it was in March (the snow in the video was literally the first time it snowed in a month).
The scenery in Chama, will different isn’t anymore scenic, and the railroad is in no way any better run than the D&S, plus, they’re converting to oil for the exact same reasons.