The Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad’s dinosaur train will be back this June after getting the go-ahead from La Plata County commissioners on Tuesday.
Commissioners approved a temporary-use permit for the railroad to operate the event three weekends next month on its Animas Valley property three miles north of Durango.
The process was smooth sailing compared to last year, which was the first for the dinosaur or “dino” train. The event initially faced stiff opposition from Animas Valley residents who complained about the smoke and noise from additional train trips as well as the dino train’s carnival-like visuals that they said would ruin the area’s natural environment.
The event is based on “Dinosaur Train,” a popular cartoon series that airs on PBS Kids and is aimed at children and families. Train passengers go through a series of educational challenges related to paleontology. The theme park destination will be similar to last year’s which included blow-up dinosaurs, archaeological dig activities and food vendors. All of the structures will be temporary.
D&SNG owner Al Harper said he expects 6,000 to 8,000 passengers to ride the dino train during the three weekends this summer.
County planning staff members and Commissioner Bobby Lieb said they had not received any negative comments about the dino train since its inaugural weekend last June.
At a neighborhood meeting last month, glider pilots and Val-Air Glider Port owner LaVern St. Clair expressed safety concerns because the glider port is directly north of the dino train destination. The pilots were worried that the main event tent was slated to be directly in the flight path of gliders taking off. Any accident during takeoff could pose a danger to people in the tent, they said.
Railroad officials agreed to move the main tents farther east, which allayed many of those concerns. At Tuesday’s meeting, St. Clair said he still had issues with the railroad’s event, though he was mainly concerned with power lines and trees on the railroad’s property rather than the location of dino-train structures.
Despite initial safety concerns, commissioners approved the railroad’s permit, agreeing that the risk to train passengers was very low.
The train’s temporary-use permit is good through the end of June. Harper promised that the next time he approaches commissioners about the dino train he will have a proposal for a more permanent solution.
ecowan@durangoherald.com
