Sachgebiete

Beschreibung:

152 Seiten; viele Illustr. (Fotografie s/w); graph. Darst.; Kt.; 23 cm; kart.

Bemerkung:

Gutes Exemplar; Einband stw. minimal nachgedunkelt. - Englisch. - ... The Silverton Branch was built in 1881-1882 by the Denver & Rio Grande Railway Company (D&RG) which started in Denver in 1870. By the end of 1882 the company operated trains over a thousand miles of track. Periods of bankruptcy and reorganizations were frequent in the company's history, however, and several name changes reflected these financial problems. In 1921, as the result of a major reorganization, the company became the present Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad (D&RGW). Until the Silverton Branch was sold to the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad Company (D&SNG), the D&RGW operated this somewhat nostalgic means of transportation. The schedules of the regular D&SNG trains are similar to those used by the D&RG in the early 1900's. Although operated primarily for visitors, schedules are rigidly maintained to the minute - without the benefit of speed recorders in the engine cabs! Today more convenient departure times from Durango and Silverton are scheduled, because connections with other trains at those points are no longer possible. The last connecting train - the D&RGW's San Juan, which was a daily deluxe train between Alamosa and Durango, was abandoned in 1951. The D&SNG non-stop trains to Silverton (the first class San Juan Express) is No. 115 to Silverton and No. 116 to Durango. The original San Juan Express was the first D&RG through train from Denver to Salida, Colorado in 1880 when Salida was the end of the line. ? Operating rules on the D&SNG are adhered to as rigidly as on any standard gauge main-line road, as shown by the classification flags and lights placed on the locomotive and by the marker lights carefully hung on the last car by the trainman each morning (photo, page 99). These flags and lights are not mere decorations - to railroaders they have definite meanings. For example, the locomotive of a regularly scheduled train with no following section carries no flags or lighted marker lamps. The locomotive of the first section of a two-section train will carry green classification flags and marker lights, but the locomotive of the following section will carry no flags or lights. The locomotive of an extra (or unscheduled) train will carry white flags and lights. Red marker lights or flags on the rear car indicate that the assembled equipment is an authorized train with operating rights, and tell track-side observers that the train is intact and has not broken in two. The locomotive headlights are always turned on while trains are operating. These also serve as signals; when a train enters a siding to allow another train to pass, the headlight of the waiting engine is turned off to let the other engineer know that the entire train is in the siding and that the mainline is clear. A small red indicator on a long steel rod attached to the right side of the smoke-box front of the locomotive, is a signal to the engineer that the flanger chisels under the locomotive pilot are up or down. These chisels, which are used to clear ice and packed snow from inside both rails in winter so that there is enough clearance for the wheel flanges, must be raised while crossing roads and traveling through switches or guardrails. ... (Einleitung) ISBN 0931788005