The Lee Family: Day Three: Riding the Durango-Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad

We woke up yesterday excited to ride the Durango-Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad. I bought our tickets to the train early last week so I could be sure to chose the day with the absolute best weather. It promised to be a gorgeous day! One really great thing about staying at the Strater Hotel is that it is located just two blocks from the train station and the train runs right behind the hotel, which our room overlooks. So, if we happen to be in our room at 9:45am, we can watch the train head out of the station and up the mountain toward Silverton. In the summer the train takes the full trip to Silverton, 50 miles away from Durango. However, in the "off season," the train travels to Cascade Canyon, about an hour outside of Silverton.

While CK got the girls up, showered and dressed, I walked across the street to the Durango Coffee Company across the street from us and picked up two coffees, an apple juice, chocolate milk, four yogurts and two homemade granolas to add to our yogurts. I returned to the room and we ate and got ready to walk to the train station. We were all so excited to get on the train and have our adventure and I know CK and I were really looking forward to it since we arrived. We picked up our tickets and walked around the visitor center and shop for a few minutes before it was time to get on the train. We found our car and seats and settled into our space. We were lucky to find that we were several cars back from the engine and right in front of the open air car and the concessions car.

We were soon underway and waited until the conductor checked our tickets before Sofia and I got up and headed to the open air car. It was already pretty full and it was surprisingly cold outside, so we headed back to our seats after a few minutes. Plus, the views were those we'd seen on our way up toward Purgatory, so nothing we hadn't seen before. As the train headed away from the road and stayed along the Animas River, the scenery became much more interesting and we headed back out onto the open air car. CK and Olivia stayed behind, enjoying the scenery from their seats. Sofia immediately made a friend named Regan who was 10 years old visiting from Hawaii and they made a game of trying to stick their hand out of the car and touch rocks, trees and anything else. There was a little bit of coal and cinder dust that would float back and the girls had to be careful not to get it in their eyes. The girls stayed on the side close to the rocks while everyone else was stacked on the more scenic side of the car. I was finally able to inch my way onto the scenic side and the views were absolutely breathtaking! It was so hard to imagine how the train track was set in place over 100 years ago so far above the river valley and cut through huge slabs of granite. After more than an hour of traveling uphill, the train headed over a bridge crossing the Animas River and I switched to the other side of the outdoor car since now the scenery would be on the other side. I can't imagine how many pictures I took, but it was so hard not to capture all that we saw.

About two hours into our journey, we stopped at Cascade Canyon, where the train turned around so we were pointing toward Durango again and we were able to get off to eat our lunch. We went ahead and bought the catered lunch the train company had on their website and I ordered four turkey club sandwiches that each came with an apple, cookie and sweet potato chips. We found a pile of cut logs and sat to eat our lunch. The food was delicious, although Olivia didn't love the pesto spread, so I pulled out the turkey for her to eat by itself. After we were done eating, the girls immediately took off for a snow patch nearby where other kids their ages were playing. Sofia had a brief snowball fight with two other girls and then the three of them ran down to the Animas River to jump off huge boulders into the snow. I figured she'd be in the water in no time, but she somehow managed to just get her new snow boots wet and not any of the rest of her. Meanwhile, Olivia tried to stay up with her sister for a few minutes, but then changed course and found a meadow on the other side of the train to run in and pretend she was a Jedi. I kept an eye on her without her knowing it and love how much she entertains herself and was surprised at how she never even really attempted to look for CK or I. She was perfectly content to play by herself and be in her own little world. CK and I took a bunch of photos of the train and CK went up and talked with the engineer about the engine and learned a lot about it.

The engine is a 1925 Baldwin 2-8-2 narrow gauge locomotive. Six were made, they have four and run three on the line. All of them have different 'personalities'. It takes 5-6 hours for her to go from cold to running, but they usually do it slower to prevent rapid metal expansion problems. They keep it warm all the time, kill it monthly to flush the boiler and do major maintenance and a complete rebuild is done every five years. They have to machine most of their parts inventory or have it done out by specialists. The boiler pressure is about 125psi. It has a 'Superheater' that double heats the steam to make more and more efficient work. The engine takes 8,000-10,000 gallons of water to make the run up and back from Durango to Silverton. When pulling hard on the grades, the fireman feeds about 6-8 big scoop shovels full of coal per mile. The Fireman also pulls duty as lookout on left turns, so there are times on this route when he's pretty busy. The engineer rides, whistles, and watches the right side and the PSI gauge.

After about 45 minutes, the engineer made three long sounds with the whistle, as a signal to board the train within the next 10 minutes or risk having to walk back to Durango. Apparently, the train has left a few people behind but they were picked up by the car/train once it was discovered. We got back into our seats and Sofia and I headed out briefly to the open car but then returned inside. Olivia was just stretching out on the empty bench, so I cuddled her up in my lap and she was asleep in no time. Meanwhile, Sofia asked for her coloring book and crayons and spent at least the last hour coloring and making up intricate stories of the animals in her coloring book. She really is something with her stories. Even though we'd seen the terrain already on the way up to Cascade Canyon, it was still impossible not to be an awe of the scenery and I took many more photos on the trip down the mountain.

We made it to the Durango Train Station around 2:30pm and decided to visit the museum for a short time. The museum was really interesting and told of a bygone era. After the museum, we visited Starbucks and sat outside to enjoy our beverages before heading back to our rooms. At this point, CK was feeling like he might be coming down with a cold or something so he relaxed while I took the girls out. I decided to take them to a park and was surprised to find few decent kids parks. We also ended up driving around trying to find the trail head that one of the shop owners explained to me, but I couldn't remember which street we turned down, so it ended up being a waste of an hour.

We returned to our room and met up with CK and decided to eat Thai food. The one Thai restaurant that was "recommended" was pretty dismal inside, so we left and and ate at the Himalayan Kitchen instead. We'd noticed it on our first night and loved how it looked inside. This would also be a first foray into ethnic food for our girls. We picked a sampler platter for the girls to try everything and they liked most of it, especially the chicken tandoori. CK and I both got lamb dishes that we've had and love and also Naan and Riata. It was delicious. The lamb was not the best and very tough, but the sauces and everything else was superb! We rolled out of there and returned to our rooms for bed!

At the train station and excited to board!