A long way from home. On a summer afternoon, Eureka & Palisade #4 "Eureka" charges across the 1887-vintage, wrought iron trestle at Tefft (MP 477.80), as she makes her way south toward Durango, Colorado, with a passenger excursion during Railfest 2011.
Built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1875, to run on a narrow gauge line in the desert of Central Nevada, little Eureka is a long way from her home. Although the home rails of the Eureka & Palisade Railroad were torn up nearly 80 years ago, the Locomotive "Eureka" still makes her home in Nevada, at the residence of retired Las Vegas Attorney, Dan Markoff. Rescued as a basket case after a movie studio fire, "Eureka" was lovingly restored by Mr. Markoff and his dad, and for a number of years, made annual trips to Colorado's Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, running during the annual August "Railfest". She was finally sidelined after the 2012 event, as her FRA Form 4 had expired. Fortunately, over the past few years, Mr. Markoff and friends have accomplished the required boiler inspection and she's once again legal to run on FRA-regulated track. She had been scheduled to appear at the Cumbres & Toltec's planned "Victorian Iron Horse" event in 2020, but the event was postponed to the following year, because of the COVID pandemic. Lots of fans, including me, already have our tickets to see Eureka run in the desert outside of Antonito, where the scenery looks a little more like her home in Nevada.
