A day trip on the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, Colorado, September 28, 2015
We’ve done the Durango to Silverton round-trip train excursion at least 3 times. It takes up most of the day, all day if you do it like we did the last time when we were camping at Mesa Verde National Park, 40 miles away from the train station in Durango.
Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad
Wikipedia
Accessed 8/21/22
The Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, often abbreviated as the D&SNG, is a 3 ft (914 mm) narrow-gauge heritage railroad that operates on 45.2 mi (72.7 km) of track between Durango and Silverton, in the U.S. state of Colorado. The railway is a federally-designated National Historic Landmark and was also designated by the American Society of Civil Engineers as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark in 1968.
The route was originally opened in 1882 by the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad (D&RGW) to transport silver and gold ore mined from the San Juan Mountains. The line was an extension of the D&RG 3 ft (914 mm) narrow-gauge line from Antonito, Colorado to Durango.
The line from Durango to Silverton has run continuously since 1881, although it is now a tourist and heritage line hauling passengers, and is one of the few places in the U.S. which has seen continuous use of steam locomotives. In March 1981, the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad (D&RGW) sold the line and the D&SNG was formed. Today, the D&SNG, along with the C&TSRR (Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad), are the only two remaining parts of the former D&RGW narrow-gauge network. The railroad has a total of nine narrow-gauge steam locomotives (eight of which are operational) and soon-to-be eleven narrow-gauge diesel locomotives, six of which were acquired within the last three years, on its current roster.
Some rolling stock dates back to the 1880s. Trains operate from Durango to the Cascade Wye in the winter months and Durango–Silverton during the summer months. Durango depot was built in January 1882 and has been preserved in its original form.
