Passengers onboard the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad became stuck for about two hours Friday after a train separated from itself, possibly the result of a deviation in the track where a private property owner performed soil work, according to the D&SNG.

The separation occurred shortly after 10 a.m. on Hermosa Hill, between Hermosa and Pinkerton, said John Harper, general manager of American Heritage Railways, which owns the D&SNG.

The train, which was en route for the Cascade Wye, had to be backed down the track and returned to Durango without reaching the Wye. It arrived back in Durango shortly before 2 p.m., about a half-hour before its scheduled return.

Audrey Slaven said she drove eight hours from Kansas just to ride the train.

“We didn’t get to see very much, but we met some great people on there, so that was good,” Slaven said.

Passengers said they were offered complimentary drinks on the train and a full refund upon return.

Saturday’s train was booked full, so passengers like Slaven were unable to rebook.

Harper said the train was traveling north toward Cascade Canyon when a mechanical failure occurred. The railroad was investigating the cause of the malfunction Friday afternoon, but he said initial findings suggest an adjacent property owner installed utility lines under the tracks and failed to properly compact the ground upon completing the work.

Landowners that have driveways or have utility lines that pass under the tracks must receive a license from the D&SNG before performing work in the railroad right of way, Harper said.

The licenses help ensure driveways and utilities are installed to specific specifications, including making sure the subgrade material is compacted to a height and depth that does not impact the tracks, he said.

“In this specific instance, what we found is that when the train was going over where this utility was installed, that there was a significant deviation and an area where the track actually sank, and it only sank when there was weight over it,” Harper said.

“It’s not something that we would have been able to find by inspecting it visually,” he added. “We would have had to actively put a full train with weight over the location because the ground was soft and was not compacted properly for the utility that was installed.”

Train cars separated, but safety chains worked as expected, Harper said.

“The safety chains actually kept the train together,” he said.

shane@durangoherald.com