The Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad,
one of North America’s most popular tourist heritage railways, has thrilled thousands
of visitors with picturesque train rides through the Animas River Canyon over the years.
Recently, the railroad’s fleet of locomotives has undergone a significant transformation,
moving from coal to oil as a fuel source.
Oil and coal fired locomotives behave somewhat differently in terms of firing characteristics,
and so to help train their crews with oil firing, the railroad brought in restored Southern
Pacific steam locomotive number 18 from Independence, California.
SP 18 was built in 1911 for the Nevada-California-Oregon Railway as a 3 foot narrow gauge 4-6-0 ten
wheeler.
It was later sold to the Southern Pacific for use on their former Carson and Colorado
Railway line in Eastern California and Nevada.
The locomotive was retired in 1955 and donated to the city of Independence.
Today, it is cared for by the non profit Carson and Colorado Railway group.
SP 18 made several trips between Durango and Silverton in 2019 and 2021.
We will follow the 18 pulling a special train to Cascade Canyon in April of 2019 and then
again on a double headed train to Silverton in the summer of 2021.
Thanks for joining me for this look at SP 18 on the Durango and Silverton.
For more information on the 18, visit carsoncolorado.com.
If you’d like to ride on the Silverton train for yourself, check out durangotrain.com.
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That’s it for now.
Until next time, I’m Mike Armstrong.
I’ll see you down the line!
Thanks for watching.