Showing posts with label Silverton. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Silverton. Show all posts

Sunday, October 31, 2021

Ride the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad from Durango to Silverton, Colorado in 1965

 


Dr. L.N. (Duke) McGillis at the controls of the old Denver & Rio Grande Engine No. 478 in the year 1965 - Click for larger image (http://jamesmcgillis.com)

Ride the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad from Durango to Silverton, Colorado in 1965 (Part 2)

In August of 1965, my father (Dr. L.N. McGillis) and I visited Durango, Colorado. One of the highlights of our visit was a ride on the old Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad (D&RGW) from Durango to Silverton, forty-five miles north. At the time of our visit, the Durango to Silverton line was already 83 years old. By the 1960s, steam locomotives had largely disappeared from the main railroad lines throughout the U.S.

The Author (Jim McGillis) looks back toward the camera as Engine No. 478 pulls a hill on the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge line in 1965 - Click for larger image (http://jamesmcgillis.com)Today, over forty-eight years later, a few heritage lines like the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad continue to roll. What makes the Durango & Silverton line interesting to me is how little it has changed since its inception the 1880s. Although heavier tracks now support the larger K-36 “480 Series” locomotives both those and the original K-28 “470 Series” locomotives began service in the early 1920s.

Built to roll on tracks that measured a mere 3 ft. between their rail heads, the 470 Series engines were purpose-built for the narrow gauge. The larger, 480 Series engines started life at standard gauge, measuring 4 ft. 8 1⁄2 in. from wheel flange to wheel flange. In 1965, old rails, which weighed about 45 lb. per yard, lay stacked alongside the tracks in many places. In preparation for the heavier 480 Series engines entering into service on the line, crews installed new tracks weighing up to 90 lb. per yard.

With a rock outcropping overhead, the Denver & Rio Grande Engine No. 478 rounds a curve at the summit of a climb en route from Durango to Silverton in 1965 - Click for larger image (http://jamesmcgillis.com)In preparation for our 1965 excursion, my father and I had visited the Durango Depot early in the morning. With our film cameras in hand, we had snapped pictures of the first section, powered by Engine No. 476 as it departed Durango for Silverton. Soon, it was time for us to board the second section, led by Engine No. 478. In those days, the tender cars of both engines featured a stylized “Rio Grande” logo. Reflecting a change of ownership in the early 1980s, the same trains today feature the “Durango & Silverton” name.

Although Engine No. 478 sported a traditional black and silver paint scheme, the ten passenger cars in our train were painted bright orange, with black trim and silver roofs. At that time, each passenger car still featured a rooftop chimney. In earlier days, the chimneys vented coal-fired stoves, which heated the cars during the colder months. Although most of the passenger cars on the line today retain their traditional livery, the stovepipes are now gone.

After we departed the Durango Depot, the steam whistle sounded each time the train approached another grade crossing. With no less than eight grade crossings in town, the engineer and fireman were busy watching for cross traffic and letting the steam whistle wail. After making its way across the Animas River Bridge north of town, the train began its slow ascent through the picturesque Upper Animas Valley.

Leaving behind a huge cloud of coal smoke, the D&RGW narrow gauge train pulls up the Animas River Canyon in August 1965 - Click for larger image (http://jamesmcgillis.com)Unlike current diesel locomotives, steam engines use a constant flow of water to recharge their boilers. At the old Hermosa Station, we stopped to fill the water tank on the tender car. Once we were moving again, the 2-8-2 Mikado began a more serious climb into the former San Juan mining district. In the 1880s, passenger and freight service to the numerous mines was the original impetus for laying tracks up the series of steep grades. Built in less than two years, construction required the blasting of solid rock from the canyon walls. Construction crews shuttled the resulting rubble to create a riverside bench for tracks laid along the lower sections of the line. Despite periodic flooding along the Animas River, the rubble rock staved off the floods and supported the tracks. Over one hundred thirty years after railroad tracks first linked Durango and Silverton, the route remains essentially unchanged.

Clinging precariously to the wall of the Upper Animas River Canyon, an early twentieth century silver mine offered a nostalgic view in 1965 of what must have been a dangerous profession in its day - Click for larger image (http://jamesmcgillis.com)In the early twentieth century, when regional gold and silver mining collapsed, various abandoned mines remained, some hanging precariously on the canyon walls. Built with wood from nearby forests, many were unpainted and thus exposed to the elements. In 1965, we were amazed to see how many of the old mines remained in the Animas River Canyon. In the 1960s, they were a picturesque reminder of an earlier day. In the 1960s, professional photographers hiked up into the canyon and meticulously photographed every remnant of that short lived but industrious time in Southeastern Colorado. Many of the photographs found their way into wall calendars of the era. While researching this article, I was sorry to find that none of those earlier mine photos has survived on the internet.

In order to personalize our photographs of the journey, I hiked from one end of the train to the other. Whenever we would go around a dramatic curve, I would lean out from a platform or a window. At that time, no one told us to keep our heads, hands and arms inside the train. By the time we finished our trip, we had many images of me looking back toward the camera, or rounding a curve and one as we pulled into the Silverton Depot.

Like "The Little Engine That Could", D&RGW Engine No. 478 continues up the Animas River Canyon toward Silverton, Colorado - Click for larger image (http://jamesmcgillis.com)As first time passengers on the Durango & Silverton line, we did not realize how long it would take to complete the trip. Including time for several water stops along the way, the train took three and one half hours to travel the forty-five mile route. That meant we averaged just less than thirteen miles per hour. As exciting and interesting as the experience was, we were happy to arrive in Silverton in time for a late lunch.

Until its peak in the early 1900s, Silverton had serviced the needs of miners from throughout the high country. By the 1960s, Silverton was living off its legacy as a former mining and commercial center. Many buildings were empty and falling into disrepair. Land and property in the remote town was selling at an all-time low. Only a few restaurants and old time hotels supported the town. When I visited again in 2007, I met a white haired old man who had bought property in Silverton in the 1970’s. As modest as the man was, the list of properties he then owned in town was worth in the millions of dollars.

Looking every bit the professional that he was, Engineer Steve Conner held court in the cab of Engine No. 478 at Silverton, Colorado in 1965 - Click for larger image (htp://jamesmcgillis.com)In the 1960s, passengers could wait in line for a chance to visit with the engineer in the cab of the locomotive. When it was his turn, my father climbed into the cab of Engine No. 478 and took a seat in the fireman’s location. In the picture that I took of him that day, looking forward and down the track, he looked every bit like a professional railroad engineer.

Although the steam engine was huge, the area between the cab and the tender was not spacious. There was barely room for the fireman to take a scoop of coal, step on the lever that opened the firebox door and toss the fuel in. Like a pizza oven, the idea was to minimize the frequency and duration of door openings, thus keeping the firebox hot at all times.

Kodak Ecktachrome image of Engine No. 478 at rest in Silverton Colorado - Click for larger image (http://jamesmcgillis.com)While waiting in Silverton for our return trip to Durango, we had time to inspect all of the running gear on the huge engine. Dripping hot water and emitting small jets of steam were the twin air-brake compressors that hung low and wide near the front of the engine. Using a system originally devised by George Westinghouse in 1868, steam from the boiler would occasionally cycle into each compressor. There, a steam driven piston would pump air into a reservoir. Within the Westinghouse air-brake system, low pressure in the brake lines activated the brakes. With the train parked on level ground at Silverton, the occasional cycling of the air brake compressor was the only sound that the engine made. When it was time to depart, the Head Brakeman used a valve within the cab to increase pressure in the lines, thus releasing the air-brakes along the full length of the train.

Black & White photography adds a nostalgic touch to Engine No. 478 in Silverton, Colorado in 1965 - Click for larger image (http://jamesmcgillis.com)After a couple of hours in Silverton, a blast from the steam whistle indicated that it was almost time to depart for Durango. In those days, the train parked head-in at the station throughout the visit. Upon departure, workers threw manual switches along the tracks, thus allowing the engineer to back the train on to a wye track. Once safely on the wye, other switches were thrown, thus allowing the train to proceed down canyon toward Durango. Over time, these procedures have changed. Now, while the passengers are enjoying lunch in Silverton, the trains back on to the wye, pull forward briefly and then backs into the Silverton station. When it is time to go, the engine is facing in the correct direction for travel.

Departing Silverton Station in 1965, the author (Jim McGillis) watches as the train backs on to a wye track before changing directions and  then heading down-canyon toward Durango - Click for larger image (http://jamesmcgillis.com)When the old Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad began service between Durango and Silverton, the train was far faster than the wagon road previously used. Today, that is no longer the case. Although the route of U.S. Highway 550 (the Million Dollar Highway) between the two towns is three miles longer than the rail line, it takes only an hour to make the trip by automobile. With a three and one half hour train trip back to Durango, the final hour of travel can become tedious. Passengers now have the option of taking a motor coach in one direction and the train the other direction. Also today, passengers can opt for more luxurious seating, beverage service and snacks in one of several parlor cars.

Thunder clouds build as the Denver & Rio Grande Durango & Silverton steam train heads back to Durango in 1965 - Click for larger image (http://jamesmcgillis.com)Any way you go, the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad is piece of American history that travels through some spectacular scenery. Several times in its history, the railroad almost went broke. With its current popularity, the line now boasts up to three trains per day during the peak summer season. With that revenue stream, I expect to see the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad prosper for many years to come.

This Part Two of a two-part article. To read Part One, Click HERE.

 


By James McGillis at 03:00 PM | Travel | Comments (0) | Link

Monday, November 25, 2019

Four Corners Region - The Colorado Plateau 2008


Square Tower House, an ancient alcove dwelling at Mesa Verde, Colorado - Click here for larger image (http://jamesmcgillis.com)

The Magic Gate - Part 2

Four Corners Region

The Colorado Plateau

Mesa Verde
 
From Durango, we ventured west on Highway 160 to the pre-Puebloan alcove and cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde National Park.  Mesa Verde contains the most famous of the Anasazi (or pre-Puebloan) sites in the Four Corners.  In 1965, the archeological sites appeared unchanged since their discovery in the 1870s.  With park rangers as our guides, we climbed traditional pole-ladders and peered into ancient living spaces and granaries.  On hands and knees, we squinted down into dark ceremonial chambers, known as kivas.  In contrast, today one views these ruins from behind fences, on well-marked trails.
 
Cliff Palace Ruin, Mesa Verde, Colorado - Click for larger image (http://jamesmcgillis.com)In the 1960s, mystery pervaded the disappearance of the ancient cultures of the Four Corners.  Today, we know that those cultures experienced a combination of drought, overpopulation and internecine warfare.  To offer some perspective on their numbers, archeologists believe that in 1200 CE, the population of Colorado’s Montezuma Valley was 30,000, a number larger than its contemporary population.
 
For reasons both known and unknown, the society broke down, leading to the complete depopulation the Four Corners.  Later, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the Navajo tribe, with ancestors traceable to Asia, Alaska andDerelict, weather-beaten, bent and broken Aermotor windmill on the road to Kin Klizhin, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico - Click for larger image (http://jamesmcgillis.com) British Columbia, repopulated much of the area.
 
Returning to Durango that night in 1965, we saw live television reports of riots in South Los Angeles.  Large areas of Watts and the Central City were ablaze.  Not unlike the pressures experienced by the pre-Puebloan cultures of 1250 CE, summer heat, overpopulation and competition for resources had led to violence in LA.  Unlike the pre-Puebloan, who could simply migrate south in search of water and new farmland, there was nowhere for the residents of South Los Angeles to go.  In a metaphor to the actions of the ancients, some Los Angelenos sacked and burned their own commerce and cultural centers.
 
The Disappearance
 
Masonry wall at Una Vida Ruin, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico - Click for larger image (http://jamesmcgillis.com)Hundreds of archaeologists and other scientists have studied the pre-Puebloan disappearance phenomenon.  Not one of them that I know has hypothesized seismic activity as a contributing factor to the mass migrations of 1200 – 1400 CE.  Today, researchers assume that prior to their departure; the former residents burned and willfully destroyed many of their most important buildings.  The remaining destruction they attribute to the ravages of time. 
 
Rather than assuming that the pre-Puebloan tribes irrationally destroyed their own cultural landmarks, might we trace the initial cause of that destruction toThe Durango to Silverton narrow gauge train heads downstream along the Animas River, Silverton, Colorado - Click for larger image (http://jamesmcgillis.com) large-scale seismic activity?  Even the largest earthquakes leave few long-term traces in the natural environment.  Toppled towers and caved-in kivas might be the best indicators we have that cataclysmic seismic activity provided impetus to the complete abandonment of the Four Corners area. 
 
Today, we find potsherds at many Four Corners sites.  Intact pottery is so rare that we find it only in museums and private collections.  Were the pre-Puebloan so careless as to destroy essentially all of their useful pottery or did seismic activity play a larger role than previously assumed?
 
Derelict Ouray County Coleman snowplow dump-truck, Silverton, Colorado - Click for larger image (http://jamesmcgillis.com)The Reemergence
 
Today, the consensus is that the last pre-Puebloan migrated away from the Four Corners, later to “reemerge” as the Hopi, Zuni and other Pueblo tribes.  The Hopi creation myth centers on the “sipapu”, a hole in the earth from which their ancestors arose.  Every ceremonial kiva in the Four Corners includes a symbolic sipapu in its floor. 
 
The great kivas provided communal warmth and shelter to the pre-Aspen trees changing to fall color, Silverton, Colorado - Click for larger image (http://jamesmcgillis.com)Puebloan.  Since an earthquake could collapse their roof timbers, kivas also carried the risk of unexpected and immediate death.  After a swarm of catastrophic earthquakes around 1250 CE, did the pre-Puebloan survivors reemerge from the metaphorical sipapu of their collapsed kivas, only then to leave the land that had caused them so much death and destruction?
 
Silverton
 
Spokesmodel Carrie McCoy in Downtown Silverton, Colorado - Click for larger image (http://jamesmcgillis.com)Leaving Durango, we traveled north on Highway 550, also known as The Million Dollar Highway.  Whether the road derived its name from its initial construction cost or from silver-bearing ore crushed into its asphalt mixture is still a subject of conjecture.  In 1965, its new surface reflected light like a million diamonds in the afternoon sunshine.
 
After negotiating the 10,910-foot Molas Divide, we descended into Silverton, Colorado, a former mining town now famous as the northernMain Street with fall color, Silverton, Colorado - Click for larger image (http://jamesmcgillis.com) terminus of the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad.  Although winter sports are now a factor, the summer tourist trade generates most of the town’s revenue.  In late May 2008, a spring snowstorm closed Highway 550 near Silverton, forcing us to make a low-elevation detour in order to reach Moab, Utah

By James McGillis at 12:10 PM | Travel | Comments (0) | Link

Tuesday, November 12, 2019

Colorado's Million Dollar Highway 2007


Main Street, Silverton, Colorado - Click for larger image (http://jamesmcgillis.com)

Colorado's Million Dollar Highway

On Saturday, September 22, 2007 I departed Durango, Colorado. My destination was Moab, Utah, via Ouray and Grand Junction, Colorado. When I arrived in Silverton, Colorado it was still summer, but only for a few more hours. With an elevation of 9300 feet, autumn color comes early to Silverton
 
After only a brief stop in Silverton, I headed up and over the Million Dollar Highway. Built before the turn of the 20th Century, it is reputed to have cost one million dollars to build. For the traveler, its name might also apply to its “million-dollar views”.The Million Dollar Highway, Silverton, Colorado - Click for larger image (http://jamesmcgillis.com)
 
At the other end of the Million Dollar Highway is Ouray, Colorado, also known as the “Switzerland of America”.  Ouray is at at a lower elevation than Silverton, but still gets a nice dusting of snow during the winter months.  Winter or summer, the high peaks surrounding the town make it a dramatic place to visit.  Its history is rich with mining and ranching.  If you like expensive home sites, come to Ouray.
 
After stopping for lunch in Ouray, I headed north to Grand Junction, via Montrose, Colorado. Main Street, Ouray, Colorado - Click for larger image (http://jamesmcgillis.com)If you desire a place to do business that has all of the civic amenities, plus every big-box and chain store imaginable, I suggest a visit to Montrose, Colorado. It is on the Western Slope of the Rockies and is not subject to quite the weather extremes that some of the higher elevations must endure.
 
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