Thursday, May 21, 2009

Durango




We came up from Albuquerque through some spectacular high plateau scenery today. We went into Durango for lunch and I had a tour of the railroad yard. The Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad was built to move silver ore from the mines in Silverton down the Animas Canyon to the smelter in Durango. The days of the drop side ore gondolas used back then are long since gone but the railroad has survived. Tomorrow we go up to Silverton on the train and I hope to have some great shots of both the canyon and the train. At one point the Animas River is over 400' straight down from the roadbed ledge blasted from the rock wall over 125 years ago for the trains. The top photo is of a Doodlebug. It was small powered passenger vehicle used to save money when regular passsenger trains were not needed. This one is being stored on front of the roudhouse

1 comment:

Scott said...

I think one of those doodlebugs would look great in your front yard!