We join Jon and John (@JaiahHazelnutBrown) as we venture into the seemingly impenetrable Animas River Canyon on what will be our final trip in the cab on the Durango and Silverton’s mainline rails with a coal fire in the heart of the beast. We start in Durango at the depot where trains have left from here since 1881 and move past the Strater Hotel (filming locale for the ‘El Tovar’ lobby in ‘National Lampoon’s Vacation’ serious, look it up). We roll over the Rio de Las Animas Perdidas, the River of Los Souls. We’re behind historic, vintage ALCO diesel 103 from the White Pass and Yukon (“actually it’s a ‘Montreal Locomotive Works’ or an “MLW” there Diehl”… I don’t care, we’re calling it an Alco)
We climb the hill at Hermosa and venture into the canyon below the snowy slopes of Purgatory Ski Resort.
Featuring a cameo from @YardLimit (bruh, Diehl, that’s just the Durango “Yard Limit” sign, that’s not the famed videographer…)
