Steamscape: The Highline. Denver & Rio Grande Western K-28 #477 takes a Durango-bound mixed train through the most famous stretch of track on the 45-mile Silverton Branch, that being the highline horseshoe curve at about Milepost 469.4. Here, the train is creeping along under a permanent slow order, as it runs along the rock shelf, a couple of hundred feet above the Animas River, which is visible on the right side of the frame.
This image was captured during an October 2024 photo shoot on Colorado's Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, which featured K-28 Locomotive #473, re-lettered as one of her long-lost sisters, the #477. The original 477 was scrapped after hard wartime service in Alaska in the 1940s. Although the crew is making a dark exhaust plume for the cameras, the locomotive is actually loafing here, as the speed limit is only 5 mph, for obvious reasons. A derailment here would have serious consequences. In fact, there is guard rail installed along most of the horseshoe, as can be seen just in front of the cow-catcher pilot. This is one of the few photos that I have taken since the railroad converted to oil-firing, in which the lack of a coal bunker is really pretty obvious.
Landscape photography is difficult due to the challenge of combining good light and good scenery. Good railroad photography enters another level of complexity since it requires the first two while there is a train in view.
The Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad and the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad are all that remains of the legendary Denver & Rio Grande Western narrow gauge system. Here you'll find some of my favorites from these two beautiful railways.
