Lobbin' wood. With their locomotive in the hole on the Elk Park Wye, the crew of Eureka & Palisade #4 forms the traditional wood line to take on fuel. Although she is just a 22-tonner, the logistical issues associated with operating a 19th-century wood-burner in a remote environment such as the Silverton Line are pretty formidable. Eureka has a voracious appetite for wood when she's working hard and must fuel up several times during the 45-mile journey from Durango to Silverton. To facilitate this, the D&S folks have to deploy some 15-20 cords of wood during their 4-day Railfest, spread among sites such as Durango, Rockwood, Tacoma, Cascade, Elk Park and Silverton. Since there are no machines to facilitate loading, owner Dan Markoff must bring a sizeable crew of his friends along with him not only to help load the wood on the tender, but to provide a healthy rotation of cab crewmembers, so they don't burn themselves out physically. Eureka typically has 4 crewmembers in the cab and tender. There's an Engineer, who actually operates the locomotive, and a Pilot from the host railroad (in this case, D&S Engineer Joe Dailey) who advises the crew and keeps them on schedule. There's also a "wood passer" who constantly brings wood from the tender and piles it in front of the firebox, and a Fireman who stokes the firebox and manages the water. Eureka crewmember George Sapp has been firing and running this engine since 1995. He reports that unlike a coal-burner, there is no particular art to firing the E&P #4. Wood is literally lobbed into the firebox by the arm-load (every 5-8 seconds when she's running hard.) The vibration of the train and the firebox draft pretty much take care of arranging the pattern of the fire. It's a pretty strenuous workout and the dozen or so on the Eureka team all take their turns firing and running. At one run-by stop, George quipped that the Eureka crew had decided to form a union, with the resulting organization to be called "FOWL" (Fraternal Order of Wood Lobbers)!! LOL!
