I was 11 in 1958 when I first visited Durango, and only knew a few bits of information about the narrow gauge, learned from a kids book of railroading found at the library. I had seen postcards of the K28s, but had no idea that other classes of Mikados existed, nor that freight trackage still ran to Alamosa. The first engine I encountered beside the roundhouse was the 486, one of only two that my mother allowed me to photograph with her Brownie camera. It, and the 480 behind had banked fires and smoked lazily away.

Both engines ran into the early 1960s, then were set aside, inoperable. Eventually, the 486 would end up on display at the Royal Gorge, where it rusted away like most park engines, and the 480 ended up sitting derelict outside what was left of the Alamosa shop facility after the carnage in 1970. After the Silverton Branch was sold, track and bridges were upgraded slightly to permit the heavier 2-8-2s to operate there, and eventually the first two narrow gauge Mikados I had ever seen came back home, to be overhauled and operate.

So here then, is the 486 chugging up to Rockwood, less than one month ago, some 46 years after I first saw it. Railroading and even the narrow gauge have changed a lot since then, but it is good to see an old friend is still working.

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=79020