Trackside Experiences Standing in the valley below Windy
Point near Coxo, N.M., a Cumbres & Toltec Scenic doubleheader approaches. The engines work in and out of sync, slipping and clawing at the 4 percent grade, stomping past in a show of steam and smoke. The cinders rain down heavily as the pair of K-36 Mikados march toward the 10,000-foot summit at Cumbres with the freight consist trying to slow the locomotives’ ascent toward the top. On the Durango & Silverton you’re marching northward along the Animas River, so close at times you might wish you had brought along a fly rod to make a few casts. The climb continues up the valleys, and the train slows and stops to throw the switch to enter the siding at Elk Park for a meet. This siding is located in a magnificent valley, and every stop at this location is cherished for its sheer beauty and wonderful photographic angles available when meets occur.
The Time Machine
It’s very easy to activate the time machine and experience the long-lost sounds of a working narrow gauge steam railroad. For a start, you might climb into the cupola of Rio Grande caboose No. 0505 coupled to a mixed train waiting on the platform at Durango, Colo., in the pre-dawn light. Once settled in the
ABOVE: Heading for Silverton in March of 2011, No. 473 is within earshot of Rockwood as she climbs the grade and snakes the ridge with a northbound passenger train.
RIGHT: A westbound doubleheaded freight on the C&TS slowly rounds a curve near milepost 317.8, not far east of Osier, Colo., on a 2008 fantrip charter.
OPPOSITE: A northbound charges through the Animas Valley above Elk Park, Colo., on the Durango & Silverton in 2006.
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