Steam & Excursion > DSNG K-28 Charter 10/18-19

A few early favorites from last week's Train Magazine charter at the DSNGRR. DSNG 473 was re-numbered for this charter to DRGW 477 - one of the seven K-28's sent to Alaska during WW2 and ultimately scrapped. Our train was a mixed freight and passenger consist that I believe was meant to approximate a service from around 1940. The weather was challenging all weekend with ample rain, hail, snow, and little sun to be had. As is often the case poor conditions make for nice photography and I enjoyed the moody scenes that were on hand.

The charter focused on northbound locations the first day with an overnight in Silverton before returning to Durango the following day. A broken leaf spring on one of 477's drivers required a maintenance crew to replace it during our overnight in Silverton. My photos certainly don't break any new ground at these iconic locations, but I hope you enjoy the them all the same.

1. With a rain storm close behind, DRGW 477 steams along Granite Rock as it approaches the station at Rockwood.

2. DRGW 477 approaches Tank Creek on a stormy Friday afternoon.

3. DRGW 477 rolls into the hole at Elk Park in preparation to meet the normal passenger excursions returning from Silverton.

- Ben

Ben Kuhns
Salt Lake City, UT
Ben Kuhns dot Com

---

---

---

Scenic beauties.
Bob

4. DRGW 477 steams across High Bridge in the rain.

5. Winter has begun to set in at the upper reaches of the Animas river canyon as DRGW 477 is reflected in the pond below.

6. DRGW 477 crawls along the famous High Line.

Ben Kuhns
Salt Lake City, UT
Ben Kuhns dot Com

---

---

---

All very nice.  I see several IOTD candidates!

mike woodruff
gillette wy

CATS charter this weekend

I really like that fourth shot.  It's got to be a condender for IOTD.

A stunning series of images.  Beautiful photography.  Thank you! 

Greg Stadter
Phoenix, AZ

Great series of shots

From what I know from various photos and paper records, very few Rio Grande narrow-gauge locomotives were painted with the "Flying Herald" before 1941, so a proper "dating" of this look would likely be 1941, shortly prior to the 7 K-28s being sent to Alaska the following year.  Also, an unavoidable discrepancy is that the "Grande Gold" coaches did not start appearing on the D&RGW narrow-gauge until after the 1948 Fair in Chicago, and relatively few narrow-gauge passenger cars were painted from Pullman Green into Grande Gold until the 1950's.  So, the "477" would have been a pile of scrap iron long before a Grande Gold narrow-gauge passenger car ever appeared.  So, this is a "fantasy" train, depicting something that didn't ever happen historically.  That doesn't mean that it didn't look neat and interesting, but a re-creation?  Nope.

Fabulous shots. Great coloration!

Wow! Great work; thanks for sharing.

Nice work, great colors, lots to see.
t4p.

Those are all great shots, Ben. I especially love the one going over High Bridge. 

Thanks for sharing.

Bill D.

Wow. Incredible scenes

Nice pics!!