Silverton Train

[dansls1]

Ok, so this is a request, but as it's railroad specific I figured I'd put it here. There's a song by the guy who sang 'Convoy' in the '70's about the Silverton Train (Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Durango and Silverton Narrow Guage Railroad). I'm wondering if there are any kits (free or commercial) out there of the engines that have been used on this line. I admit I'm not a big train fan - so the only real information I have on the engines is what is listed on the Wiki sight above.
Thanks in advance for any assistance

[Texman]

Just my .02, I too would be interested, as we road this line during the vacation this year. Quite a cool trip!

Ray

[boosed]

Sorry that I don't know the song, Dan, but I have to mention that a ride on the Durango & Silverton was my Fathers' Day gift from Lil and the kids in June 1974 as we were traveling from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, to the Presidio of Monterey for me to take Korean language refresher training before we headed back to Korea.

John Allen also used the Animus River Valley as the model for a stretch of his Gorre & Daphetid Railroad in Monterey. I operated the Andrews Branch of the G&D every Tuesday night in 1969-70, while I was in the language school. By the time we returned in '74, John had passed away and the G&D had been destroyed when his house burned down. The former G&D railroaders were then operating an On3 railroad that had some overtones of the D&RGW narrow gauge line.

Don

[dansls1]

Here's a slideshow video of the line set to the song - YouTube - Silverton Train .

Sounds and looks like an awesome train ride, although I admit that being in cars on bridges like that tend to make me uncomfortable.

[off topic] When I was a kid, I had recurring dreams about running or driving up a bridge, then getting to the top and falling. It was always the same bridge, that had a bit of a turn to it as you were going up. In high school, I went up to the UP of MI and went across the Zilwaukee bridge for the first time. Oddly enough, it was the bridge from my dreams as a kid. That bridge didn't open until 1988, when I was 17, and I'd been having dreams about it for at least 10 years. (I just looked up and construction started on the bridge in 1979, so I was having dreams about it before it existed) [/off topic]

[Texman]

Yeah Dan, it is an awesome ride, and the views can be pretty incredible as well.
And, with the two boys, it was just about as good as it can get.

[redhorse]

Don, you actually operated on the G&D?!?! I'm not normally a very envious guy, but in this case I'll make an exception

[boosed]

Jim (Not to get too far off your thread subject, Dan -- at least we're still talking trains) -- It was one terrific experience that I would love to re-live. I can still close my eyes and see the in-bound peddler freight from Port grinding up the hill from Squaw Bottom with, among other things, a hopper loaded with basic balloonium ores for the Superior Detritus Company. It was at John's house that I also became friends with Jim Findley, who lived much of the time in Korea and was a frequent dinner guest at our house there.

Don

[cjwalas]

Don, my admiration for you grows in leaps and bounds! An operator on the G&D!!!! How very cool. I'm impressed, in case you missed it.
Chris

[dansls1]

I have to admit until this thread I don't remember ever hearing of John Allen. After doing a search online and seeing who he was and what he did, I have to admit I'm impressed!
(And no worries about taking my threads offtopic - the more posts, the more likely I get somebody telling me where I might find a kit of one of the engines, which was my original goal anyway ).

[boosed]

I'm a little suprised that no one has come up with one yet. The D&RGW outside-frame narrow gauge locomotives that do the D&S run are really iconic. They've been modeled many times over the years in various scales and materials and I would have thought that one of them would have been modeled in paper by now.

Having made a bona fide on-topic comment (sort of), let me mention that John was very welcoming to military people who wafted into the Monterey area. When she worked for the Military History Institute, Lil once came across an oral history by a retired Navy captain who admitted to having arranged to anchor his US Navy oiler in Monterey Bay once just so he could participate in one of John's Tuesday evening G&D operating sessions.

Don