In 1994 an outdoor model railroad club formed in Durango named the San Juan Large Scalers. Many of the members retired to Durango to be close to the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad and local railroad history. They saw how Hollywood had repainted and relettered steam locomotive D&RGW 315 in Santa Rita Park and decided it needed authentic paint. Little did the men know that over time they would have the old engine steaming down the rails once again.
For those loyal volunteers, their enthusiasm for trains started with model railroads. In the 1950s young boys affectionately played with train sets. In our basement we had a complete Lionel train set laid out on plywood tables. I remember the set well because my older brother was always derailing my model trains when I least expected it. Our grandfather had been a railroad detective on the Great Northern Railroad, and I inherited his .38 Colt Police Positive pistol and his brown leather sap for tapping hobos behind the ear or on a knee.
I love the 19th century sound of our local train in the morning when the whistle blows and excited passengers head north to Silverton. My Lionel train set is long gone, but I am sympathetic with railroad buffs who come to town “chasing trains” and who are a solid part of our tourist economy.
Motivated by club member Tom Mosher, the San Juan Large Scalers set out to authenticate the paint scheme on retired steam engine No. 315. The engine had been used as a Hollywood prop and the 35-member club sought to restore the Baldwin engine to its 1940 appearance. Mosher died before the work could begin but his memorial service was held in Santa Rita Park adjacent to the engine he longed to repaint. There were many steps in the restoration process, including the creation of a new nonprofit the Durango Railroad Historical Society (DRHS) and support from local businesses.
“The days of effort on the paint job gave club members the opportunity to take a better look at the engine’s overall condition. Some began to see it in a new light,” said past DRHS president George Niederauer.
Locomotive 315 had sat in the park since 1950. Could the old girl run again? Who owned it? Was the boiler intact? What would restoration cost? No one knew. Jeff Jackson, senior vice president of the Durango & Silverton Railroad, had pledged support, and Jeff Ellingson had helped with the painting and lettering, but could the 315 run again? Could it be fired up to steam?
Built in 1895 at the Baldwin Locomotive works in Philadelphia, No. 315 began its railroad life in Colorado as Florence & Cripple Creek Railroad locomotive No. 3 to haul passengers for the great Cripple Creek gold rush, which helped bring the United States out of the 1893 depression. Named the Elkton, it had silver and gold painted trim. A flood in 1912 caught the steam engine in the San Luis Valley and then it was stored in Canon City and later Colorado Springs. Purchased by the Denver & Rio Grande and refurbished, the engine then worked out of Alamosa.
By the early 1920s the locomotive steamed out of Chama, New Mexico, and by 1924 it had been renumbered the Denver & Rio Grande Western 315. Serving as a helper engine, freight engine and switcher, the big engine puffed and steamed on the Rio Grande Southern Railroad around Durango, Montrose, Ouray and Telluride. The engine had more repair work done in Montrose, and by 1949, it had a new life in the Hollywood movie “Colorado Territory,” the first Hollywood feature film shot near Durango.
The engine had been one of the largest narrow gauge locomotives in Southwest Colorado. It became outclassed by newer, more powerful steam engines, though during its active life it huffed and puffed twice as long as most engines. In 1950 Jackson Clark Sr. saved the 315 from the scrap heap with assistance from Durango’s Rotary Club and the city of Durango. The engine became the property of Durango’s Chamber of Commerce.
In 1956 the locomotive was used in the film “Around the World in 80 Days” and painted to look like the Colorado Pacific 60 Jupiter engine, but it was pushed from behind on tracks up the Animas River and no longer moved under its own steam. The movie-era paint job and artificial props inspired volunteers to return the old girl back to her working-class railroad roots. Part of the restoration was historical documentation and designation.
In 2001 the Durango City Council placed 315 on Durango’s Register of Historic Places and later it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Restoration focused on how the locomotive looked in 1940. The long search began for missing and damaged parts, and replacement of rotting wood with new oak, Douglas fir and white ash for the cab. The Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden helped with spare parts. New patterns and castings for metal parts no longer in production were made by shops and foundries in the Denver and Longmont areas.
“Removing several 2 and 5/8-inch diameter boiler bolts that hadn’t been touched in over 50 years proved a formidable task. Many cans of Liquid Wrench were applied to loosen the threads,” Niederauer said. “A pipe wrench with a 4-foot handle, a 6-foot ‘cheater’ pipe over the handle, and three guys pushing and pulling finally broke it loose.”
La Plata Electric Association staff members and one of their pole trucks helped to remove heavy parts, and the State Historical Fund approved a grant to evaluate the boiler. Was it cracked? Could it safely hold steam pressure? These were vital questions to answer. Even the Durango Fire Department got involved using its “Jaws of Life” to remove stubborn nuts.
The DRHS worked seven seasons in all kinds of weather at Santa Rita Park plus one vital month in the Durango & Silverton roundhouse with their professional crew supervising a final tuneup. Larry Beam, D&S Roundhouse Foreman, said that starting the old engine up “actually went a little better than some I have done in the past. There are just a lot of unknowns until you steam it up and find problems.”
Editor of Trains Magazine Jim Wrinn wrote that the restored 315 “responded when volunteers reawakened her. A miracle indeed!”
But the DRHS did not just stop with putting No. 315 back on the track. They reconstructed 1,800 feet of the long gone Silverton Northern track working cooperatively with the San Juan County Historical Society in Silverton. Volunteers also helped to restore the two-stall Silverton Northern engine house. They’ve acquired and restored the 1949 full-size model locomotive Emma Sweeney now displayed at Santa Rita Park as well as rail cars, a boxcar, tool car, bunk car, cattle car, sheep car, refrigerator car and a flanger for moving heavy snow. Restoration was done by volunteers in the area and by contractors in Arboles and Silverton. They have two cars yet to restore; a Primos tank car and Silverton Railroad Baggage Car 5.
In Silverton, the DRHS has worked with the county historical society to create the Railroad Outdoor Museum.
“Everyone in the preservation world should be amazed and happy about the contributions of rail buffs,” said Silverton native Beverly Rich. “It has been a pleasure working with the DRHS, a group of passionate people who love the history of trains.”
Over the past 25 years the DRHS has raised and spent $2.4 million with 20% coming from the State Historical Fund. The small group of volunteers have “demonstrated our capacity to conceive, research, execute and complete complex and highly technical railroad restoration projects.”
Absolutely. Congratulations. When Santa comes to town this Christmas, he’ll probably be in the cab of old Engine No. 315.
Andrew Gulliford is an award-winning author and editor and a professor of history at Fort Lewis College. He can be reached at gulliford_a@fortlewis.edu.
