Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, Heritage railway in Southwest Colorado Mountains, United States.
The Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad is a heritage railway running on 45 miles of track between two former mining towns through the San Juan Mountains in southwest Colorado. The rails follow steep canyon walls along the Animas River, where the train travels just feet from the water and curves around rock faces that open onto views of surrounding peaks.
The line opened in 1882 by a larger railroad company to haul ore from silver mines in the San Juan Mountains to smelters in Durango. When mining declined after World War II, the railroad began carrying tourists, and by the 1960s it operated solely as an excursion route.
Passengers sit on wooden benches from the early 1900s while steam locomotives blow dark smoke outside, just as they did when miners filled the same cars. Conductors wear period uniforms and punch tickets with vintage tools, turning the ride into a working time machine rather than a museum display.
The round trip takes about seven hours, with a layover of several hours at the endpoint where visitors can walk through the small town. In winter the trains run on a shorter route, while summer offers multiple daily departures with open cars that work best in good weather.
The locomotives burn up to six tons of coal per trip and require several hours of heating each morning before they build enough steam pressure. On steep sections the engines produce audible breathing sounds as they work uphill, a noise that has remained unchanged for over a century.
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