It’s a somber day in the San Juan Mountains in La Plata County on March 23rd, 2024 as we find ourselves in Durango Colorado in the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad yard.

For 139 years, the railroad had been powered by coal-fired steam locomotives until after it began converting its locomotives from coal to oil fire to help mitigate the chances of fire ignition after the 416 wildfire was started near the trackside, possibly from a passing train, whether from the locomotive or a passenger’s carelessly thrown cigarette. One by one, the steam locomotives turned from burning the bituminous rock to recycled waste oil.

Due to the changing climate and long-term drought in the intermountain west, a few of the other tourist railroads in the west such as Grand Canyon Railway, Heber Valley, Cumbres and Toltec have done to prevent fires

We start at the Durango depot where we witness the crews of the D&SNG taking one last photo with the gallant old lady before she shoves off across Sixth Street and points north. We’ll follow the dirt burner as the fireman takes old C.W. McCall’s advice and is shovelin’ coal up from Durango. Up through the Hermosa Valley carved by glaciers, we ramble on past a ranch/farm near Trimble Hot Springs (sorry, “Durango Hot Springs”). From Hermosa we climb up the ruling Hermosa Hill, a two-and-one-half percent grade to Rockwood where we'll perch ourselves on the rock above Shalona (My Sharona?, no, My, My, My Shalona...) Lake where we witness this final, historic moment. We then venture through the cut that Robert Redford jumped off of onto the Union Pacific's 'Overland Flyer' in 1969's 'Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid' to the final coal burner to ever tiptoe over the world-famous Horseshoe Curve (this one has more photos take of it than that trivial one back east on the Pennsylvania Railroad / Conrail / Norfolk Southern whatever it is now,, and that's a fact, jack!). We drone over this famous last train as it heads around the horn with a mournful whistle.

We follow as it Rolls along past houses, farms, and fields, but this is not the City of New Orleans by Amtrak or the Illinois Central. and we witness the final train rolling into the Durango Yard. We'll watch as the locomotive hostlers shake the coal and ashes from the ashpan for the final time and 481 rolls into the stall of the roundhouse to begin her 'Rebirth of a Locomotive', well, into an oil-burner.

There is no distant signal, so we're not delay in block, nor no commuter trains to be a coasterfan for, you can be an amtrakguy, but this is all narrow gauge, so at least we have a yard limit on this line.