View from our room at the Grand Imperial - Looking north

Looking south

E&P #4

RGS #5

The hind end of the Goose heading south out of

 Silverton Yard

The Eureka crossing the

Rio de los Animas Perdidas

With all the recent rain

in the high country, there

were several new, and temporary, waterfalls.

Dan Markoff regales us with the story of how he acquired and restored the Eureka.

The Eureka on the north leg of the Elk Park Wye

We thought this was a hummingbird at first. But,

after looking it up Michele discovered that it's a moth.

Elk Park Wye

RGS #5 on the south leg

of the Elk Park Wye

I don't know what I was looking at, but it must have been interesting.

Train 461 storms up the grade through Elk Park

Train 461 heading for Silverton

The crew wyed the Goose and then set up for a

"Golden Spike Ceremony"

With an hour to kill while waiting for Train 463, the

crew filled the time by

having some fun.

Inside the cab of the Eureka

Michele's head peeking

above the grade at me.

Dan Markoff takes a few swings. You could tell he's done this before!

Goose Motorman Larry

Spencer on the spike maul. Conductor George Swift (our Conductor) is at the left.

Dan Markoff on the Eureka and

Larry Spencer on the Goose.

Note: those are water bottles!

Train 463 thunders through Elk Park...

...en route to Silverton

After Train 463 cleared us,

the Goose returned to Silverton and the Eureka headed south for a LONG day of photo

run-bys and meets.

As long as I live, I will never take for granted the raw beauty of this area!!

Water stop at Needleton Tank. This is Senior D&S Engineer Bill Colley.

The "new" Needleton Tank,

built in 1973 by the DRGW

The original Needleton Tank -

Not in service today - MP 484.4

Meeting K28 473 at Neddleton Siding - MP 484.0.

Brakeman Jon Walden confers

with the Eureka crew.

DRGW C18 #315 with a freight follows the Extra 473 through Needleton Siding.

Extra 315 heading north. On the left is Rich Millard,

Chief Conductor for the railroad. On the right is

Brakeman Charles Franz.

There are not many places

in the country, or the world, where you can see a scene

like this!

----

On the Caboose is Rich

Millard and Charles Franz, with Brakeman Mark Smelser

on the ground.

After the meet, we

continued south.

Tefft Truss Bridge - MP 477.8

The train was stopped in

this shot, I'm not that crazy

 or reckless!

At Cascade Canyon, MP 477.5, we stopped to load firewood, wye the train, and

wait for Trains 462 and 464 to pass us on their way back to Durango. I've

wanted to help do this for years! It was a blast!

The tail of the wye is quite long

Still loading wood

Train 462 heading south

North leg of the wye,

looking east.

Cascade Canyon is really a stunning location. I would

love to hang out and go

fishing here someday.

After all the wood that could be carried was loaded, I followed the tail out to the end.

It must be at least a quarter of a mile, maybe more. Perhaps the D&S should call it

 "Cascade Jct" and the "Cascade Branch!"

End of the tail

End of the tail looking back towards the main and pavilion

The Animas River

Cascade Canyon local resident

Looking south towards Durango

Train 464 finally arrives which clears the main line for us all the way back to Silverton. It's time to HIGH BALL!

Apparently Train 464 was a

tad late, so the crew of the Eureka greeted the Engineer

on 481 by making a show of looking at their watches!

The original Needleton Tank  at MP 484.4 - not in service today

Taking water from

the new tank

Brakeman Mark Smelser

Needleton Tank

This is the original bridge over the Animas at MP 489.9.

 Built in 1884, it was replaced by a newer structure

just to the west in 1964.

The new deck girder bridge

Looking north up the Animas River from the old bridge

This is a NEAT structure!

Perfect...

Here's Michele taking some photos from Coach #257 as

I stood on the platform of Caboose #0540.

The old bridge

Here's the north end of what was the main line over the old bridge. Today it's a MOW spur.

Heavenly...

Baker's Park at sunset

Hot Shot #1

Passing Extra 315 North

Note that we used 3/4ths

 of a FULL tender of firewood

to travel from Cascade

 to Silverton!

AWESOME!

K28 #473 at the Silverton Dept

This is my favorite shot

from this night shoot

The moon, as seen from our room at the Grand Imperial

After arriving back in Silverton, we hurried to get some chow before the night photo shoot. Next to the hotel is a BBQ place called Thee Pitts Again. You can't miss it, there's a pink delivery van out front. The food is out-of-this-world! It's so good in fact, that we went back 2 days later for more!

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Day 6

Day 7

Day 8

Day 9

Day 10

Day 11

Day 12