Now we are talking..........

OK - I could not resist. Instead of looking at another 1:64 scale model for today's blip, I thought I would add a 1:1 model - the real thing. This is a shot off our back deck as the Winter Train of the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad (http://www.durangotrain.com/) goes past on the way to Cascade Canyon. With the new snow falling and the smoke - too good to pass up. It can't go all the way to Silverton because of the snow but does make it about half way, has lunch, and turns around at the wye at Cascade Canyon.

The locomotive is a K-36 from the old Denver Rio Grande and Western railroad that ran to Durango from way east - Alamosa in this case. South and west of Denver. It is the heaviest of the narrow gauge locomotives that worked out here. My model of the RGS had to use lighter locomotives, like the K-27 or Mudhen and C-16's as the track and trestles would not hold a K-36. But these K-36's make all the right sounds and spit and growl like an animal when they go past. Not bad for a 100 plus year old piece of machinery. So much better than sitting in a museum.

Hey - maybe I will have a little snow on my model?