Durango, Colo. – The Durango & Silverton tourist train that chuffs along a scenic 45-mile route through the southwestern Colorado mountains has spent about $1 million on equipment and training to help battle wildfires, railroad officials say.
The railroad began beefing up its firefighting capacity after Colorado’s disastrous wildfire year in 2002, when steam-powered service was interrupted because of dry conditions.
“We learned a lot in 2002 – the wrong way – but a lot,” said Allen Harper, chairman of Coral Gables, Fla.-based American Heritage Railways, which owns the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad.
Each passenger train now includes a 1,000-gallon water tank with a compressor capable of spraying water 400 feet. Locomotive smokestacks are fitted with two screens to catch sparks and a metal ring of nozzles that spray a mist around the stack.
An onboard brakeman watches for smoke from the trees and undergrowth and a motorized patrol car follows each train.
“These guys are great,” said Evan Buchanan, the railroad’s operations superintendent. “You ride along with them, and they can smell fires you have no idea are there.” On one critical stretch, tanker cars spray water on either side of the tracks to reduce fire danger, and fire lines have been cleared between the tracks and nearby forests.
Tank cars with 6,500 gallons of water are stationed at key points along the route, and diesel locomotives are available to pull them to any place they are needed. In drier summer months, a fire wagon with 350 gallons of water and a four-person crew trails each train.
Durango Fire & Rescue Deputy Chief Allen Clay provided wildfire training to all Durango & Silverton crews.
“We’ve been working with them for years, and they’re been doing a great job in reducing the possibility of a fire starting,” he said.
Harper and Buchanan accompanied La Plata County officials, fire chiefs and other emergency personnel on a private train last week to view the railroad’s firefighting efforts.
The three-foot narrow gauge Durango-Silverton line was completed in 1882 as part of the Denver and Rio Grande Railway, hauling passengers and freight in the minerals-rich southwestern corner of Colorado.
Last year, the Durango & Silverton carried 165,000 passengers.
