Little Trains to Faraway Places

8. The Silverton (1991)

8 the silverton F ramed in the tall rear windows of the cinco Animas, a diminutive wooden business car of venerable heri­tage, Colorado’s San Juan Mountains soared skyward. Narrow-gauge rails spun off behind, weaving back and forth to follow the tumbling waters of the Animas River— the Rio de las Animas Perdidas, or River of the Lost Souls. With our small group of family and friends—Laurel, Jennifer and Emily, Rich and Linda Thom, and me—comfortably ensconced in this historic car, the train rattled and rolled downgrade through a bright August afternoon, heading back to Durango at a leisurely pace from the picture-book, false-fronted Victorian mining town of Silverton, a National Historic Landmark with a fine collection of period buildings. The fragrance of coal smoke drifted back from the 480, a chunky K-36 outside-frame Mikado built in 1925 by Baldwin Locomotive Works. The oak andbirchpanelingaboardthe Cinco Animas creaked,andwheelsonrailsang. Now and again No. 480’s engineer laid on the whistle cord, and a melodious warning echoed off canyon walls. Riding the Cinco Animas, we enjoyed the rail-bound perquisites of privacy and comfort once reserved for nabobs and railroad presidents—who, in fact, had been among the Cinco’s passengers in • Book 1.indb 95 2/16/10 8:49:37 AM l i t t l e t r a i n s t o f a r a w a y p l a c e s . 96 . the car’s earlier days. But in 1991, when we rode the Cinco Animas, the Durango &SilvertonNarrowGaugeRailroadroutinelyofferedthatcar—andthe Nomad, an even more opulent former business car (and, in fact, the car we’d originally chosen)—to anyone, on a charter basis, for a price. For the entire 45-mile journey on the Durango & Silverton, probably the most famous steam railway in the United States, our train—yellow coaches, open cars, and, on the end, the Cinco Animas, gleaming in distinctive red livery—rarely strayed from the river. In its upper reaches, where the tracks ran directly alongside, the water danced and sparkled in the sunlight; farther downstream the Animas plunged precipitously, leaving the rail line high above to slink along a narrow ledge hacked out of vertical cliff. Here the river swirled in deep, narrow flows. As the locomotive tiptoed along the “High Line,” those of us peering from the open observation platform into the abyss plunging sheer just a few feet from the tracks admitted that a jolt of adrenalin underscored our appreciation of nature’s majesty. From Silverton down to Rockwood, a distance of 27 miles, the railroad ran through wilderness, and since there were no roads, the train was the way in and out for hikers and fishermen. At Elk Park, deep in the two million acre San Juan National Park, the K-36 eased to a stop, panting softly. As passengers leaned out of coach windows to watch, hikers slung their backpacks down from the boxcar at the head of the train, then hopped off themselves. Wewatchedastheyshoulderedtheirpacks.Thenthelocomotivewhistledoff, headed once again toward Durango, leisurely stack talk echoing softly off the mountains, the time-honored steam engine symphony. The hikers waved to the departing train, then did a double take as the red-liveried luxury of the Cinco Animas rolled by. Byturnswestoodontheopenobservationplatformtowatchthenonstop scenery receding in our wake, or sat inside—either in the somewhat Spartan, inward-facing straight-backed chairs in the rearmost lounge or in the plush red seats of the cozier central area of the car. This atmospheric room still contained four Pullman sections: wide seats that could be made down into lower berths at night, while uppers folded from the ceiling. Both the Durango & Silverton and the cars now known as Cinco Animas andNomadarerichinaccumulatedlore.Asmuchasthescenery,thisgenuine historicity is responsible for the line’s uniqueness—and for its being named a NationalHistoricLandmarkin1967 andNationalHistoricCivilEngineering Landmark the next year. The D&S, and the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad , some 100 miles from Durango, are remnants of a once-vast spider web of 3-foot-gauge rails that crisscrossed Colorado. In 1882, when the Denver & Rio Grande completed its Silverton Branch from Durango, the final piece of the San Juan Extension from Alamosa via Chama, the system was approaching its zenith: more than 1,800 route miles in a network that reached from Book 1.indb 96 2/16/10 8:49:38 AM t h e s i l v...