Contributed by Stan Jennings
| All I wanted to do was ride Galloping Goose Number 5 and ride behind the Eureka, the beautifully restored narrow gauge 1875 4-4-0 locomotive. The Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railfest '99 provided the perfect opportunity to do both, but when I purchased my tickets in May 1999, little did I realize how involved I would become with Rio Grande Southern Galloping Goose Number 5. That story is elsewhere on the Narrow Gauge Circle (see A Wild Goose Chase). Those events bias the Railfest story because I did spend most of the week with the Galloping Goose, except for my scheduled ride behind the Eureka and one day to relax. |
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| The first event of the Railfest week was the arrival of Galloping Goose Number 5 from Dolores on Tuesday, August 24, 1999. There were no problems and the shakedown runs later that day provided no surprises. She was quite well behaved, and remained so all week. Wednesday, the Goose made her first revenue run, from Durango to Silverton. I came from Salt Lake that day and met the Goose in Silverton. Later in the week Bob Craddock (part of the Eureka crew) called the Goose, "The damnedest looking consolidation of stuff I've ever seen'' and the Goose lived up to that description as she waddled into Silverton about 5 PM. A personal note regarding something very special in my life. It was shortly after the arrival of Galloping Goose Number 5 in Silverton that Janet Wagner received her very special engagement ring from me. She was delighted. |
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| Thursday, the Goose made three runs from Silverton to Elk Park and return. There were several beautiful photo run-bys and the passengers thoroughly enjoyed themselves. |
| While the Goose was operating on the Silverton end of the line, the Eureka arrived from Las Vegas, was unloaded and steamed up in preparation for it's first scheduled run on Saturday, August 28, 1999. |
| Friday, the Goose made one run from Silverton to Elk Park and return then the run from Silverton to Durango. The first regular train left Silverton ahead of the Goose, the second regular train arrived while the Goose was in Silverton and the Goose met the third regular train on the line. But the weather had turned quite bad. The Goose was in some rain, but elsewhere it was really raining. A very wet Goose arrived in Durango and was moved to the roundhouse for display during the opening night reception. It was then that we heard the news. The rain had created a huge mudslide near Needleton! One hundred fifty feet long and ten feet deep was the initial estimate and they couldn't even get to the second problem area yet! The line was closed and two trains were stranded in Silverton! The second regular train, which left Silverton shortly after the Goose, had to back into Silverton. The stranded passengers were then bused back to Durango and work on opening the line began that evening. |
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| Despite the news about the line, the opening reception of Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railfest '99 went quite well. There were many people present and all seemed to be enjoying themselves. It was quite a success for the first year. |
| Friday evening was a special "Mountains by Moonlight" train from Durango to Cascade by the light of the full moon. I talked to some people who were passengers on this special, and it was quite a memorable ride for them. But, remember, the special had to coordinate with the work train that evening. |
| Saturday, August 28, 1999, and Sunday, August 29, 1999, was of course quite different than originally planned. The line closure did not effect the Goose operations, except for meeting more trains, because she was scheduled to operate only as far as Cascade anyway. The added problem was that the Eureka (my scheduled ride for Saturday) and the two regular trains (there was not enough equipment or passengers in Durango for any more) could only go to Cascade, too. A bit of a dispatcher's nightmare, but things went quite smoothly. At one point all four trains were at Cascade at the same time. Keep in mind that while all this was going on, the railroad was making every effort to get the line open as soon as possible. My complements to the railroad for being able to keep things running so smoothly despite all that nature had thrown its way on this very special and very busy week. |
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| Were the passengers upset? On the Eureka, no, despite my 1949 Chevrolet pickup truck being stranded in Silverton. We got many more spectacular photo opportunities than would have been possible with the scheduled run. On the regular trains only a few passengers canceled, the rest thoroughly enjoying themselves with the unique opportunities presented that day. However, the merchants in Silverton sure noticed there were no trains for two days! We went to Silverton to pick up my truck on Sunday and Silverton was doing a good imitation of a ghost town! All in all, Saturday and Sunday were great days for the train passengers, especially those on the special trains, but were not so good for the Silverton merchants. |
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| Monday dawned quite nice, blue skies and few clouds. And the line was open! Everything was back to the original schedule except this is the day the Eureka traveled to Silverton. Tuesday was also nice and the trains operated on the originally advertised schedule. Wednesday the Goose was loaded and headed back to Dolores while the Eureka operated from Silverton back to Durango where it was loaded for the return trip to Las Vegas. |
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| The event I heard nothing about was the private motorized pop-car runs. The pop-cars were on display Friday evening, but other than that I neither saw nor heard anything about their activities. |
| Was the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railfest '99 a success? Most definitely. The special trains were full and everyone seemed to be having a good time. With the success of the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railfest '99 it looks as though the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railfest will be a continuing tradition. The Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railfest '2000 will be held August 24-28 with activities from August 22-31. In addition to the Galloping Goose Number 5 and the Eureka there will probably be at least one other unique piece of equipment in attendance. Does ''Gaggle of Geese'' mean anything? We will know more shortly. Also, plans are already underway for certain special pieces of equipment to attend in 2001. |
| (This story appeared in the October 1999 issue of the Colorado Time-Table) |
Mark L. Evans
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