Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad

Operating on 45.2 miles (72.7 km) of 3-foot (914 mm) narrow-gauge track, the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad is one of the few places in the United States to see continuous, year-after-year steam operation on its original alignment. The route was opened in 1882 by William Jackson Palmer's Denver & Rio Grande as the "San Juan Extension" to carry silver and gold ore down from the mines around Silverton; today it carries visitors instead of ore, but over the same rails.

From the 1882 Durango depot at 479 Main Avenue, the train works north up the valley of the Animas River — "River of Lost Souls" — crossing the water five times. The first 18 miles (29 km) to Rockwood run through fertile ranchland; beyond Rockwood, the last point of road access, the line enters the sheer-walled Animas Canyon, where 1880s crews blasted a narrow shelf into the granite to carry the rails hundreds of feet above the river. This shelf, the "Highline," is the signature stretch of the journey and has been photographed since the line's earliest years.

Between Rockwood and Silverton the railroad passes through designated wilderness with no motorized access — the train is the only mechanized way in. It calls at flag stops such as Needleton and Elk Park that serve backpackers heading into the Weminuche Wilderness and the 14,000-foot (4,270 m) peaks of the Chicago Basin, before reaching Silverton, a Victorian mining town and National Historic Landmark at 9,318 feet (2,840 m).

Few train rides combine this much authenticity with this much scenery. The Durango & Silverton is a federally designated National Historic Landmark and, since 1968, a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark — recognition that the 45-mile line, built in nine months and five days in 1881-82 at a cost of $917,303, was a genuine feat of surveying and construction. It used the first steel rails ever produced in Colorado.

Unlike many "heritage" railways rebuilt from abandoned grades, this line has run essentially without interruption since 1882 and still uses 1920s Baldwin and ALCO-built K-28, K-36 and K-37 class locomotives together with original 1880s-vintage rolling stock. The Durango turntable dates to 1923 and is among the oldest known narrow-gauge turntables in the world.

The setting seals its bucket-list status: the cliff-hanging Highline above the Animas Canyon, wilderness with no road access between Rockwood and Silverton, and a destination town that looks much as it did during the silver boom.

Expect an unhurried, deliberately unplugged day out — there is no cell service or Wi-Fi through the Animas Canyon. The standard Silverton round trip is a long day: roughly 3.5 hours each way with a nearly two-hour layover in Silverton, about nine hours door to door. Shorter options include the Skyway Tour (train one way, deluxe motorcoach the other) and the 5.5-hour Silverton Express.

Onboard, classes range from open-air gondola cars and standard coaches to Deluxe, First Class and 21-and-over Presidential cars; every train carries a concession car selling snacks and drinks. Open-air gondolas give the best photography and the fullest sense of the steam locomotive working hard against the grade, while enclosed First and Presidential cars add comfort and, in some classes, complimentary refreshments.

The soundtrack is the steam whistle echoing off the canyon walls and the bark of the exhaust as the engine climbs. Watch for deer, elk, black bear, bighorn sheep and the occasional moose along the river.

The line was built by the Denver & Rio Grande Railway, which reached Durango in July 1881 and immediately began the final 45-mile push to Silverton. Roughly 500 laborers — mostly Chinese and Irish immigrants paid about $2.25 a day — graded the route, blasting a shelf through the Animas Canyon's granite walls. The first construction train reached Silverton on July 8, 1882, and ore traffic began within days.

The town of Durango itself was a railroad creation: when nearby Animas City rebuffed the Denver & Rio Grande in 1880, the company platted its own town two miles south and put its depot there. The Silverton branch outlived the rest of the narrow-gauge network — the line east from Durango was abandoned in 1968 — surviving on tourism after silver mining declined.

In March 1981 Florida businessman Charles Bradshaw Jr. bought the branch from the Denver & Rio Grande Western and renamed it the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad. Since 1998 it has been owned by American Heritage Railways. After the 2018 "416 Fire" — blamed on cinders from a coal-burning locomotive — the railroad began converting its steam fleet from coal to oil firing.

The engineering story is one of blasting rather than tunneling: rather than boring through the mountains, 1880s crews carved a rock shelf — the Highline — into the near-vertical wall of the Animas Canyon, carrying the track on a ledge just wide enough for the train, high above the river. The maximum grade is a modest-sounding 2.5 percent, but sustaining even that through such terrain, on tight 3-foot narrow-gauge curves, was a major surveying achievement for its day.

The choice of 3-foot (914 mm) narrow gauge was deliberate: tighter curves, cheaper construction and easier operation in mountainous country than standard gauge. The 45-mile line was completed in just over nine months at a cost of $917,303 and was laid with the first steel rails manufactured in Colorado. The train crosses the Animas River five times on bridges between Durango and Silverton, climbing roughly 2,800 feet (850 m) overall.

Motive power is equally historic: oil- and formerly coal-fired 2-8-2 "Mikado" locomotives of the K-28 (1923, ALCO), K-36 (1925, Baldwin) and K-37 (1928-30) classes, some of the last narrow-gauge steam engines in regular revenue service anywhere in the US.

The Silverton season runs from early May to early November, and the character of the trip changes sharply with the calendar. Late May and June bring roaring snowmelt — the Animas can rise from about 400 cubic feet per second in April to over 6,000 cfs at peak runoff in June — plus green hillsides and wildflowers. July and August are the warmest and busiest months, with the fullest schedule of up to three daily departures.

Late September and October are prized for fall color, when the aspens turn gold against the dark conifers and red rock; The New York Times named the Durango & Silverton one of "5 Irresistible Fall Train Trips." In deep winter the Silverton line closes and a shorter Cascade Canyon train runs the snowy lower canyon instead, including seasonal Polar Express services.

Whatever the month, pack for altitude and sun: Durango averages nearly 300 days of sunshine, but Silverton sits above 9,300 feet (2,840 m) and runs about 10°F cooler, with the chance of rain or snow any time of year.

Book well ahead for July, August and fall-color weekends, and choose your car by priority: open-air gondolas for photography and the sound of the engine, enclosed First or Presidential cars for comfort. On a round trip you sit on the same side both ways, so ask about seating orientation for canyon views; the return leg puts the river on the opposite window.

There is no cell service or Wi-Fi in the canyon and limited facilities between towns, so bring water (altitude dehydrates), sunscreen, a hat, layers and a light jacket even in summer. Trains include a concession car, but the two-hour Silverton layover is the main chance to eat, shop and use full restrooms.

Consider a shorter option if a nine-hour day is too long: the Skyway Tour rides the train one way and a motorcoach the other, and the 5.5-hour Silverton Express pairs a morning bus up with an afternoon steam train back. Backpackers can use the flag stops at Needleton and Elk Park for wilderness access — arrange this in advance with the railroad.