Uploaded March 2026 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
In the winter of 2026, narrow gauge history was made when Rio Grande Southern 20 returned home to Durango for the first time in over 70 years. In late 2025, the engine left it's home at the Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden on a low bed trailer for a drive across the state to the Durango & Silverton Railroad. With the old RGS route over Lizard Head Pass long gone, the little ten-wheeler would instead run a series of special excursions on the former Denver & Rio Grande Western's Silverton Branch to Cascade Canyon. The grand finale of 20's stay in Durango was a week of six back to back photo charters. I rode two days of a charter organized by Lerro Photography, taking 20 and a flanger into a raging blizzard followed by a mixed train under clear blue skies. I then chased the two day D&S Winter Photo Special, as 20 lead a freight train into yet another blizzard and then a string of golden passenger coaches in a winter sunrise. This winter saw record high temperatures and record low snowfalls across the Southwest, and remarkable there had been no snow on the ground along the D&S all winter. In an incredible stroke of luck, it began snowing on the day of the first charter and had dropped over a foot of snow within 24 hours, just in time for the flanger train. A week later temperatures were approaching 70 degrees Fahrenheit and the snow had all melted away. This lucky snowstorm and the hard work of the CRRM, D&S, and charter organizers made for some of the best few days of filming steam I've ever had.
In the winter of 2026, narrow gauge history was made when Rio Grande Southern 20 returned home to Durango for the first time in over 70 years. In late 2025, the engine left it's home at the Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden on a low bed trailer for a drive across the state to the Durango & Silverton Railroad. With the old RGS route over Lizard Head Pass long gone, the little ten-wheeler would instead run a series of special excursions on the former Denver & Rio Grande Western's Silverton Branch to Cascade Canyon. The grand finale of 20's stay in Durango was a week of six back to back photo charters. I rode two days of a charter organized by Lerro Photography, taking 20 and a flanger into a raging blizzard followed by a mixed train under clear blue skies. I then chased the two day D&S Winter Photo Special, as 20 lead a freight train into yet another blizzard and then a string of golden passenger coaches in a winter sunrise. This winter saw record high temperatures and record low snowfalls across the Southwest, and remarkable there had been no snow on the ground along the D&S all winter. In an incredible stroke of luck, it began snowing on the day of the first charter and had dropped over a foot of snow within 24 hours, just in time for the flanger train. A week later temperatures were approaching 70 degrees Fahrenheit and the snow had all melted away. This lucky snowstorm and the hard work of the CRRM, D&S, and charter organizers made for some of the best few days of filming steam I've ever had.
