Personal Projects, Photography, and Pointless Pontifications
D&S Winter Photographers’ Special 2006
Last year, the Durango & Silverton ran its first Winter Photographer’s Special. After doing fall photo trains for a number of years, they decided to give people the chance to photograph trains up in the remote parts of the Animas River canyon during the colder, whiter part of the year. For those interested, I was on last year’s run, and the trip report is posted here. Apparently the first train was a success, because on Sunday, Feb 19, 2006, the D&S did it again. Since last year was so much fun, I decided to go do it again.
This year’s train had K-36 481 for power, dragging along combine 213,
coach 332, coach 331, open air car 401, concession car 64, coach 312,
coach 319, open air gon 313 (part of the old railbus), and caboose 0500.
Onboard were around 130 passengers. Unfortunately, while having a
full compliment of photographers, the winter photo special didn’t get
much of a helping of winter. While storms had wrought havoc with much
of Colorado’s road system over the preceeding few days, Durango and the
Animas Canyon got little to no snowfall, and had little on the ground.
Partially due to the light snowfall this year, the train was able to go further north on the line – up to Needleton – without running into any significant risk of avalanches. The train left Durango at 0800h and ran up to the first photo run-by at the High Bridge, then proceeded north to more run-bys at Tall Timber, Cement Fill (just below Cascade), and three around Needleton. After those, the train was shoved back to the wye at Cascade, turned, and run south for another set of run-bys at the Reverse Curves (just north of Tacoma). Thrown in as a bonus at the end of the day was an unexpected set of run-bys done on the High Line at the oft-photographed Horseshoe Curve. After a very full (and very cold) day, the crew pulled 481 back into Durango right on time, around 1730h.
The night before, D&S diesel 1 – the Hot Shot – assembles the train for Sunday
The photo special’s power this year will be K-36 481
About 30 minutes before departure, they bring the 481 up and back her onto the train
Here’s our engineer for the day – Steve Otten (thanks for the correction, John!)
At Hermosa, the crew stops and tops off the tender before we head up the line
After Hermosa, the line starts to wind around the hillsides, gaining altitude
Just another shot of the front of the train, somewhere between Hermosa and the US 550 bridge
Speaking of US 550, here we are about to pass underneath
At Rockwood, we stop and pick up three passengers. After this, we’ll step out onto the High Line and the real photo opportunities of the day will get underway.
Rounding one of the curves on the High Line, hundreds of feet of the Animas River below
A bit further up, just below the High Bridge, we’re getting closer to river level, but still up on the cliffside
The first photo run-by of the day was at the High Bridge. This wrought iron bridge was built in 1880, installed here in 1894, and reinforced in 1981 so that heavy engines, like today’s 481, could cross it safely
A shot from down near river-level on the second run-by at the High Bridge
Bringing up the rear of today’s train is caboose 0500, built for the Denver & Rio Grande in 1886 as their caboose #1.
Here’s the line of derelict rolling stock that’s stored on the Tacoma house track
Running in the shadows on the east side of the Animas just north of Tacoma, you can see how little snow is present this year
At Tank Creek, the train again stops to take on water. The original tank was removed in 1966 and replaced with this stylish (ha!) steel tanker
Next photo run-by – Tall Timber Resort! Here are most of the special’s 130 passengers
Tall Timber was a tough shot due to the harsh light from an awkward angle. The train is very near the spot of the staged crash in the 1951 movie Denver & Rio Grande that destroyed D&RGW 319 and 345.
About a mile below Cascade is the concrete wall. The 1970 flood obliterated the grade through here, and the D&RGW built this retaining wall to protect the track during future flooding.
Another, wider view of the concrete fill area. On the first take, the wind blew the smoke over the train, obscuring it from view. This is the second take.
Continuing north, the train passes through one of the many tight curves in the canyon above Cascade
The next run-by was at the Needleton Slide area (mp 482.8). This is a famous avalanche spot, often finding the tracks buried under 40-60 feet of snow during years of heavy snowfall. There’s no such danger on this dry year.
The second pass at the Slide area, as seen from the northwest side. The sign in the background reads – “Needle Creek Canyon”
This is one example of the majestic peaks found to the east of the railway through this stretch, as part of the Needle Mountains
A surprise photo stop at mp 483.7 – this is Dieckman’s Curve, honoring the engineer that encountered a sun kink near here in 1951 and put D&RGW 473 in the river. Nobody, including the 473, reportedly suffered any lasting harm from the incident.
Near the run-by site is this old, very light piece of rail, ripped from the railway and washed into the Animas decades and decades ago by some unknown flood.
Believe it or not, this is nearly the same spot as the previous two, except much closer to the track and looking south as the train backs up.
Needleton Tank is the only other original wooden water tank on the route, besides the oft-photographed Hermosa
481 pulls up under the spout. The spout doesn’t do a darn thing, last I knew. Needleton Tank was replaced by one of those ugly but functional tank car tanks (like Tank Creek) about 200 feet up the track. The D&S and CHS cosmetically restored the original tank in 2004.
After reaching the northernmost point for the year’s excursion – the Needleton tank – we stopped for another run-by at a curve about 1.5 miles south
481’s blowing a little black smoke as she charges through the photo shoot
The Brakeman helps position the train so that he can get us all loaded back on board. After that, we’ll be in for a long reverse shove to the Cascade Creek wye in order to turn around.
A look back at a few of the Needle Mountains
This restored telegraph/telephone/telegraphone (one of the three…) shack remains between Cascade and Needleton. Remember this one, since we’ll see another one later.
Having gotten turned around at Cascade, we’re now headed south down the branch
Photo 37
Our next photo run-by was at the reverse curves, just above Tacoma. This section used to be much straighter, but was washed out and hastily rebuilt in 1970
Between the train and the river, you can see the quickly-built retaining wall made out of old rail and rip-rap
Doing this shot last year, I was up above my knees in a snow drift. This year? Dry.
Our final stop of the day was on the famous horseshoe curve on the High Line. Unfortunately, the shadows of the canyon walls are growing long, as it’s almost 1600h
The train backs up to allow us all the shot of it perched high above the river below
While we’re here, the crew gets together to pose in front of 481. Thanks to all of you for putting on such a great trip!
All photographs in this trip report were taken with a Canon EOS 20D using either a Canon 28-105mm USM or a Canon 75-300mm f4-5.3 IS/USM.
This work is copyright 2024 by Nathan D. Holmes, but all text and images are licensed and reusable under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license. Basically you’re welcome to use any of this as long as it’s not for commercial purposes, you credit me as the source, and you share any derivative works under the same license. I’d encourage others to consider similar licenses for their works.
