How Does America's Most Scenic Railroad Plow Snow? Flangers On the Durango & Silverton
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- Опубликовано: 28 авг 2024
- Ever wonder how America's Most Scenic Railroad (as voted by USA Today website visitors) keeps its tracks clear of snow? Well wonder no more. Join me as we chase two separate extra trains on Colorado's Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad to clear the tracks of snow. You may have already have seen a lot of this footage as I've used in "Through the Snow, Not Around It", "Yukon South", and "Winter 2021 On The Durango and Silverton" (footage from the latter didn't make it to the 'Yukon South' video due to the footage being lost on the wrong side of the Animas Canyon, no literally, the footage was literally 'iced' from January to April of 2021). But now, we combine the footage from all three of those to create a cohesive video with narration telling you about how these special vehicles plow the rails of this ex-Denver and Rio Grande Western branch. The car, a specially made car carves a path between the rails to allow flanges of wheel stay on the rails as ice and snow build up can cause a derailment. In addition to the flange cleaning, these cars feature an additional plow that that flings snow further from the tracks. While not as impressive as a rotary snow plow that you could catch on a locale such as Southern Pacific's Donner Pass (fine, Union Pacific... ugh) or the Cumbres and Toltec with it's Rotary OY. It's not as impressive as the others, but Flanger OF gets the job done and is overall a lot easier for the railroad to use in conjunction with its plows attached to locomotives.
So join us as we hit the slopes in Vail, no... Aspen? No... Telluride? No? Purgatory? Close, we'll be down in the canyon far below it, but same area! Are we skiing? NO, good luck getting me on that after an accident as a kid, but snowboard? Tried it, two weeks later the whole world closed up, so that is a no-go... Ski-bob (ski bob, ski-bob?) perhaps, but not here. Way too rough, and I should probably learn to use the snow shoes I've purchased since then, as James from SteamTrainVideos.com (Steam Train Videos) was also filming on the same day as the steam scenes, and since he's so light compared to me, he was able to get high above Elbert Creek while I just gave up at the bottom of the hill as I sunk deeper and deeper into the snow.
Anyways, if you've read this far, Keep a lookout for that far away distant signal and even a sighting of Jerry Day... as we go from Durango's YardLimit to Rockwood's Yard Limit and chase after these historic pieces of equipment such as the ALCO/ Montreal Locomotive Works' DL535 locomotive that now call these rails home (are they snowbirds if they're still in the snow?)
Always fun to watch the D&S run!
Haven't thought about those flags in years. I used to find them all the time walking the tracks when I kid back home on the farm. Was a great childhood out exploring the world, just me and my trusty ole dog. Even if he had to lead the way and would bite me if I tried to get in front. lol
D&S Got the Ex WP&Y DLE53E's from the White Pass and Yukon And the WP&Y Alcos where used on the White Pass for a long time on Passenger Trains between Skagway Alaska to Carcoss Yukon in Canada 🇨🇦
I love ❤️ seeing the Ex WP&Y Alco DL535E's Working on the D&S Narrow Gauge Railroad
Awesome Footage of the D&S Narrow Gauge Railroad in the Snow ❄️ in Colorado
😁😁😁😁😁💯💯💯💯💯🤘🤘🤘🤘
Thanks enjoyed watching 👍👍👍
Love the quotes from C.W. Mccall, very clever.
*sshhh*. You weren’t supposed to notice that… 🤣😉
A really beautiful and interesting video.
The way the diesel was rocking just before the High Line almost made me seasick 😂
i just love the way trains are able to just push thire way through anything in thire path with ease and all while doing it in a spectacular fashion!
Nice narration.
Interesting snow removal with steam and diesel locomotives on the Durango & Silverton Railroad. Fantastic video.🎥👍👍👍👍
Hey William !! Great ""SNOW PLOWING "" video & drone footage !!! Thanks !!🤔🙄🤠😎👍👍👍👍👍
great train video
Glad you enjoyed it
Wunder schön
Great video. Thanks for making and sharing...
This video was very Icefull and very Beautifull
It was very Icefull indeed…
Great footage, thx for sharing!
Awesome!!!
Thank you! Cheers!
Enjoyable video!
Thanks for posting!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Enjoyed this.
And I enjoy that you enjoyed it!
@@Big_DiehlI didn’t know that the White Pass got some K’s…
@@RailwayProductions We actually just moved a lot of Alaska down to Colorado… Probably cheaper or something
Thanks. Great video.
Huh, didn't know they had those ALCos that the white pass and Yukon uses.
They’ve acquired four after White Pass declared them surplus
@@Big_Diehl four? Wow. Good to see ALCos not going to waste.
@@realcanadian96 Sadly, if you ask some, they'd rather see the whole railroad closed down than having them run on these rails.
@@Big_Diehl well, preserving heritage comes at a cost of running old equipment, which sadly pollutes more then more modern and up-to-date equipment. But if we, as a whole, can improve in the grand sense, then we can hopefully counteract climate change and not need to shut down heritage railroads and other preservation groups to an extent where they cannot run the equipment anymore.
@@realcanadian96 you call those Alcos up to date?? Have you seen them starting the engines? Coal smells but diesel stinks. I cancelled our tour 2023 because of those. That change happended only because of hubdrets of Californians which bought properties in Durango and at first wanted the RR to be closed because of the soit and noise. That was in 2004. When they noticed that Durango would be an Ghost town then they came up with that deiseasals. And now the C& T is the new target.
I wonder how long they have had that diesel I have been out there and not seen it
Scott, they showed up mid summer 2020. They didn’t start rolling until much later that year.
I have a question.
In the video the tracks have been cleared before.
But What about when you get that 1st big snowfall? What do you do when/if the snow piles up?
They contract heavy equipment operators to plow off large snowslides and the like.
In winter the full passenger trip up to silverton is not offered, they just go about halfway up and turn around at cascade canyon. At least that was the case last time I checked, not sure if thats still the SOP these days.
Always a trip to see the trains i see pretty regularly on this rr show up in my recommended feed haha
Hi Stein, 'stupidstufwtmyfriend' hits a point, beyond Cascade Canyon, the snow is pretty deep and snow slides make it impossible for the railroad to clear as seen in this video, so everything above Cascade goes into a hibernation.
Now, for this section between Durango and Cascade, the main plan is to hit up the rails as soon as possible during a storm to allow for the locomotive and flanger plows to keep it down as much as possible... This might include multiple attacks on drifts if needed. I know I've seen friends photos from in the canyon with snow built up to the steam locomotive's headlights.
Normal snowfalls, a snowplow extra is sent. Really severe snowfalls in the revenue era, a rotary snowplow would be used. But both pieces of the former D&RGW close down for the worst of the winter, and so don't need such equipment. Once and a while the C&TS will run steam rotary OY up their line as a railfan special, but the logistics of this prevent it from happening regularly or even yearly.
If I remember correctly 2019 what is one 476 made her debut after not operating in 20 years since 1999
Close, she came back online I’m the year prior in 2018. My footage was all shot in early 2019.
@@Big_Diehl whoops my bad I had the year wrong 476 is my favorite engine on the Durango and Silverton What I love about her is her Colorado & Southern Lukenheimer 3 chime whistle
Grafton notch in NH.
This is the Durango and Silverton in Colorado.
@Big Diehl I know. I was just mentioning the Grafton notch railroad. I know it's not that.
In the 80's when I was still usefull, I hauled lumber for some folks with your last name. Any relation?
Perhaps in the distant distant distant reaches of the family tree. But unless they're in the southwest, there's no releation.
@@Big_Diehl thanks man. Keep doing this good stuff.
O, these folks were in salt lake city.
What does all the horn blowing mean? Is it signaling certain things?
Yes it is all for signals. Two blasts can mean start the train, or when running, we're gonna continue moving after the conductor signals to the engine they're not stopping at a station. Three blasts mean we're stopping at the next station, etc. two longs, a short, and a long are for a crossing. A succession of short sounds can be used for warning livestock or trespassers on the tracks to move, or as some of us use it for, signaling to women near the right of way as we go by.
@@Big_Diehl thank you I'll have to pay attention to the horns now.
Great footage, thx for sharing!