Southern Pacific #18 – September 2021

Our #18 has been diligently carrying on with its helper duties out of Durango, currently it’s made over 30 trips to Silverton. September 2nd and 3rd were a little different than the rest. On those days, TRAINS magazine chartered a special photo train that featured the D&SNG’s #493. On the 2nd, #18 served as a helper to the regularly scheduled train but upon arrival stayed overnight in Silverton. Once the #493 arrived, it too stayed the night, and both locomotives wowed the 65 lucky passengers the following day with numerous run bys. #18 pulled a special freight train back to Durango. The photos that came from the day were amazing and we look forward to sharing some with you over time.

#18 will likely cover a handful more helper trips in the final three weeks of September but its stay in Durango is starting to come to an end. To celebrate, on October 1st and 2nd, #18 will again stay overnight in Silverton during a special two day trip. Along with the #18 will be Rio Grande Southern Galloping Goose #5. This will likely be the last trips #18 does this year so if your not already on the list, there are limited seats available for sale, call the D&SNG to find out more!

And as always, thank you Jerry Day for allowing us to share some of your wonderful images, below, from the trip!

Southern Pacific #18 – August 2021

Our Slim Princess continues to help the Durango and Silverton Railroad in double header duty. Early in August the #18 reach 25 revenue trips and also had its FRA 31 day boiler wash performed. A few upcoming dates of known operations for the #18 will be September 2nd on the regular 9:00am Silverton steam train and on the 3rd as part of the exclusive TRAINS Magazine charter trip. There will be most assuredly some other dates in August as well that #18 will be out and about.

As always, a big thank you to Olaf Rasmussen for allowing us to post his great photos from a recent #18 trip.