Praise and complaints for the D&SNG in Durango over smoke. Interesting idea about keeping engines hot with natural gas overnight. Nice to at least see the residents think the train is important to the community. Didn't the SP try some sort of blowtorch at the end of a natural gas hose to keep its engines hot in some locations?

http://www.durangoherald.com/asp-bin/ar ... 1214_2.htm

So the folks complaining about the smoke have lived in Durango 10 & 15 years. Didn't they notice anything brfore they moved there?

We used natural gas to fire up the locomotives at the Georgetown Loop on cold mornings for several years when the engines didn't have enough steam up to be lighted off on oil.

Canadian Pacific's John Street roundhouse here in Toronto used to hook locomotives up to a stationary boiler feed to keep them hot. Fires would be cleaned outside and the engine run into the stall on the remaining steam in the boiler. This led to a relatively clean working environment compared to the conventional roundhouses. I don't even think it had any smoke jacks. A rather unique idea. I don't know if any other railroads did this as well but I don't think it was very common.