Steam & Excursion > Durango & Silverton K-28 and the Fall Photographer's Special

I participated in Durango & Silverton's 2015 Fall Photographer's Special yesterday on September 26. I had a blast last year riding the glass-domed Knight Sky, and decided to upgrade my D&S experience this year.

Here are the locations covered in the video:

- Twin Bridges. (also Shot #1)
- Whitehead Gulch. (Shot #2)
- Meeting the 8 am departure regular excursion train at Elk Park Wye.
- K-28 light engine runby at Elk Park Wye.
- Needle Creek.
- Horseshoe Curve with some blowdown rainbow.

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The Photographer's Special was sold out, and according to the volunteer staff, it was sold out today (Sunday), too. That meant there were lots of people, so whenever there were no photo lines, I had to be patient AND quick to get unblocked shots.

- More Whitehead Gulch.
- Elk Park Wye, #473, and the Aspens.
- People returning to the train at Elk Park Siding.

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- Fireman to the left, engineer to the right on the locomotive. Elk Park Siding.
- Coming around the Horseshoe Curve. Animas River below.
- Entire train (and bit of the photo line) at Horseshoe Curve.

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One of the crew members told me to keep an eye on the proposed swap of K-28 #478 and K-36 #483 between the D&S and C&TSRR (Cumbres and Toltec), which he believes is imminent. Here's a thread discussing the topic in July:

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?10,3788186

- Blowdown rainbow at Horseshoe Curve.
- Crew posing for the photographers.

The Special skipped one planned runby at Tefft Bridge, due to the second 8:45 am regular excursion train running late and forcing us to wait at Elk Park siding. They made up for it by having two runbys at the Horseshoe. Overall, it was a great experience, and I highly recommend it.

That's all folks.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/27/15 23:41 by cchan006.

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Excellent work, and thanks for sharing!

Steve Mitchell
[b]http://www.yardgoatimages.com[/b]

cchan006 Wrote:
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> The Photographer's Special was sold out, and
> according to the volunteer staff, it was sold out
> today (Sunday), too. That meant there were lots of
> people, so whenever there were no photo lines, I
> had to be patient AND quick to get unblocked
> shots.

Were the photo lines well-managed?  It might just be the way you worded the above post, but it sounds like people were getting in each other's shots?

pennsy3750 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> cchan006 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > The Photographer's Special was sold out, and
> > according to the volunteer staff, it was sold
> out
> > today (Sunday), too. That meant there were lots
> of
> > people, so whenever there were no photo lines,
> I
> > had to be patient AND quick to get unblocked
> > shots.
>
> Were the photo lines well-managed?  It might just
> be the way you worded the above post, but it
> sounds like people were getting in each other's
> shots?

I thought it was well managed. There were two photo lines, one in front of a large brush and one behind that at the Elk Park Wye. The light engine runby was delayed when a group of folks changed positions last minute and couldn't fit behind the brush, so the volunteer staff contacted the crew to wait while they sorted the line out.

For shots where people were included, I chose the location above and behind the photo line on my own.

Shots #5 and #6 had no photo lines, because people were returning to the train. My comment refers to #6 where I got candid shots of the crew without getting anyone else in the shot.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/28/15 07:31 by cchan006.

AWESOME stuff....!! Thanks for sharing.

Looks like the trip ran from Durango to Elk Park and return.(?)  It appears the consist was not turned and would explain why the 473 was turning on the Elk Park Wye.

Earlk Wrote:
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> Looks like the trip ran from Durango to Elk Park
> and return.(?)  It appears the consist was not
> turned and would explain why the 473 was turning
> on the Elk Park Wye.

The Special went to Whitehead Gulch, then we shoved to Elk Park Wye. We detrained there, then the train went north to take the siding. 473 then came back light engines to turn itself around, and did a runby for us in the process.

Wow!   That is all I can say!

Very nice.  I gotta get back out there and to Chama.

Takes me back to the 1950s  that location was shot from ,when they staged a major scene in the film 'Denver and Rio Grande' as the train ploughed through a timber blockade  ,must have been a nervous time for crew and those standing around that day

Excellent, excellent, excellent post. Thanks.

Jim
Hatboro, PA​