Dusk arrival in Silverton. The sun has disappeared below the horizon but the evening twilight remains, at least for a few minutes, as Denver & Rio Grande Western K-37 Locomotive #493 pulls into the Silverton Depot (MP 496.7) alongside her temporary stablemate, the Southern Pacific 10-Wheeler #18 (aka "Slim Princess").
With the ever-present concerns about lineside wildfires, the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad elected to use only oil-burning steam locomotives and diesels for the 2021 tourist season. Unfortunately, when they began the season, they only had 3 locomotives converted to oil firing. To help deal with this shortage of usable steam power, they once again turned to the folks at California's Carson & Colorado Railway for help, in the form of the SP #18, seen here. While the 18 was too small to haul any of the line's regular tourist trains, she could be used as a helper, in combination with another steam engine, to assist longer trains up the line. She functioned very well in that role. On this particular day, she assisted the K-36 #480 up the hill, and then remained in Silverton overnight, to be used on a Trains Magazine photo charter the following day. She appears here in this dusk photo with the star of that charter, the newly-restored K-37 #493.
A continuously growing album of photos that IMHO reveal the awesome and seldom-seen beauty of the railroad world from the dimming of day to dawn's early light! From dusk to dawn, trains roll on! (I'm still finding gems of sunset-to-sunrise surprises!)
The Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad and the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad are all that remains of the legendary Denver & Rio Grande Western narrow gauge system. Here you'll find some of my favorites from these two beautiful railways.
