7. Riding America's MOST SCENIC Steam Train to Alaska!

welcome to downey live travels by train today we're riding the durango and silverton narrow gauge railway whoa this is a good one this is one of america's best kept rail experience this is incredible from the outdoor cars to the parlor cars it has it all wow look at that it's america's most scenic steam train i'm mike let's get started well i'm mike and i'm traveling by rail from the most southern train station in america to the most northern while riding the fastest oldest steepest longest most luxurious and highest altitude trains in america this is downey live travels by train america along the way i'm helping my friend will edmund check some trains off his bucket list like last week on the pikes peak cog railway and today he'll ride his first steam train so we drove through the colorado snow and arrive at our motel after midnight no we got here too late the office is closed oh there's no way they would just leave the key out on the door in the pub to public like that they just left room keys out on the door like that i don't know if they're safe i i love this little town already that's trustworthy that's a great community waking up to the sound of shunting rail cars and active steam locomotives has us up and excited for our day welcome to the small town of durango colorado [Music] did you i got it you saw that oh man i saw that thing trains are so cool okay let's go check in don't want to miss it the durango station here was built in 1882 and is kept in its original condition this train is not only a national historic civil engineering landmark but also a registered national historic landmark it's pretty significant they let guests go right up to the steam locomotive which is such a great touch now for will's first steam ride i figured there's no better than the durango and silverton narrow gauge railway [Music] okay well i guess we have to figure out which car we're in sitting in yankee girl which is a parlor car i believe so we are going to cascade canyon today gus and we are going to be having a lot of fun all right i'm going to give you all the information on the way down all the history of the train all the history of the different locations and stuff and we're going to hang out in cascade and then we're going to head back sean nice to meet you and we're off oh i love this and off we go unlocking train number seven on this journey to alaska by rail so for the next mile or so we'll actually be running through the town of durango before we get out into the countryside i can't believe they have a railroad in town and they don't have actual crossing signals they've been in continuous operation running train excursions on this rail line since 1882 and yet they don't have safety gates at the rail crossings and now we're out of town and here we go across our first river it's going to be a beautiful day man i'm ready i love trains like this like mike and i caught amtrak all across the country but it's something about those old trains and like the rockiness and the smell going across the rivers makes me feel like i'm back in 1892. so this is a narrow gauge railway and they say the yankee girl car that we're in they call it shank shaky girl so this is going to be a rocky ride oh we almost lost the water bottle i think that makes it more fun right since we're in the parlor car non-alcoholic drinks are complimentary but you can add liquor to it if you'd like so this could just be coffee or it could be coffee baileys that's up to you this is one of the few crossings we have we're crossing a highway at the moment this 45 45-mile stretch of track was built by the denver and rio grande western railroad remember that name from previous videos the tracks were originally used to transport silver and gold mined from the san juan mountains and as we climb further into the mountains the scenery starts to change and tell me you don't just love the sound of a steam locomotive out in the wild and the parlor car may just be the best place to sit and take it all in with its crown molding and vintage style but that coffee has gone right through me well as we leave town and on our way to the canyon let's do a bathroom tour it's beautiful it's not big but has everything you need toilet small sink two things i like best in here smoky stained glass window and the open window above you you know to vent out any unwanted smells will yeah i know we're enjoying the part of the car but should we go see the open air car oh man you know i love being outside all right let's go so each car does have an outdoor deck like this but there's one open air car we have to walk through a few coach cars and a very popular cafe car this is the cafe car this is where the fun is it smells good and we arrive just in time for the action oh look we're about to enter the san juan national forest so this section there's eight inches of clearance between the rocks and the train on each side you did it you touched the rock you're crazy oh but look at that this is incredible the other nice thing about this being a tourist train is that they run their own tracks no other trains run along here so they can slow down as much as they want for these scenic viewpoints you know we're not holding up any freight trains it's we're here for this we're here for the views this is the famous horseshoe curve and so they slow the train right down and make sure you can get all the photos you want here whoa you don't get this in the car oh no it's a scenic train after all it's not about getting you anywhere fast but about making sure you get to see it get closer yeah we may tip over so will i i booked this train for us you didn't know about this train at all bad at all how we doing so far man we're doing it perfect do i pick well you always do it well that's my daddy honestly it's incredible riding the cliffs of a canyon in colorado has to be the best choice for a steam train and i'm glad will agrees now we're coming up to a bridge and i heard a little little sneak peek rumor that we might get a blowout a blow off or blow down is how the engineer clears out sediment at the bottom of the boiler but for us it means the ultimate steam train show that is impressive wow these are the days there's nowhere else i'd rather be let's head back to the parlor car for a refreshing little top up both for will and i and also the steam locomotive should we should we head back to our car yeah i think we need to get an album okay we're moving now so we've stopped at the moment because we're a steam train and we need water so that's the water tower we're refilling and then we'll keep going i'm not gonna lie it looks like they're gonna be using some good fresh colorado water actually it pulls its water from tank creek here's the creek and here's the tank refilled directly from that flowing river so our max capacity is about 550 passengers um and that's running that's running heavy at around 15 cars and then when that happens we got to put two steam engines on the front oh really not just one yeah because we can't we can't gain incline well enough and it's just too slow the one steam engine can't gain enough traction to pull all that weight teamwork yeah or as we call it here steamwork well this feels exactly as i expect it would feel like to take the train in the early 1900s you know wherever you were going for whatever reason you were hoping to strike gold in the west or maybe get some silver and silver that that's right so i think this is a y intersection we're gonna pull past it back in stop for lunch and then we'll be able to pull out forwards and head back down south and there's the switch which means it's just about lunchtime so there's the conductor who's gonna hop off switch the switch and throw us in reverse so we're currently pulling into cascade canyon we'll have about 45 minutes to get out and explore oh wow there's a station and everything i i thought we'd just get out in the forest the train backs right into the forest for our one-hour lunch stop in cascade canyon some use the time to eat lunch while will and i well we go up to the front to see the locomotive pulling us yeah this is the former denver rio grande k36 i'm the fireman this is my first day up on this branch usually i work in chamomile we run the same exact stuff but it's just on cold just going up the canyon seeing the river looking back and seeing the train i mean we're recreating history here and this is when i noticed something else down the tracks now something that most passengers don't know is that there are actually two speeders one is here the other one is a little further down the tracks and they go on either side of the train one goes ahead of it just to make sure there's no rockfall landslides trees across the tracks as we're coming along and the second one follows us kind of in case someone drops a phone or something else they can radio to them and they'll find it and pick it up for you i wish we could ride on one of those back maybe another day now that we've enjoyed cascade canyon we know it's time to get back on board because the locomotive does this [Music] all right that's the all aboard time to go and as i'm about to board i got chatting with john and siri big fans and they invite me into their parlor car to see the deck at the back of the train and if you're at the very back parlor car you can't stop step on the rear platform it might be worth paying the extra money for the final parlor car to be right at the back of the tracks i love this view i mean these rear decks on trains really do make you feel like you have the whole train and countryside to yourself it has to be the most spectacular train experience you can have but i didn't come here to ride the rails alone so let's go find will again if you offered me the best seat on the train alone or the worst seat on the train with will i choose to sit with will every time even in the quiet moments it's more fun with a friend so our return trip goes past all the same sites we saw on the way out but the trip back to durango is much faster because it's all downhill so will i know this is just a stopover train on our way to the grand canyon yeah how was it man it was amazing and you can hear the steam train hard i love a steam truck it's also a reminder that we're in an incredible part of the country and that these trains give us a destination to come visit and in turn lead us to so many more sites and experiences to see and try all right thanks again sean thanks so much mike you have a good one man i will i will all right we're off to mesa verde oh yeah to get will to the grand canyon railway which is the last train on his bucket list we have to drive so we may as well stop and see a few things on the way like the renowned mesa verde national park which is known for its well-preserved ancestral pueblin cliff dwellings wow that's amazing what do you think will don't let me hear hanging i'm sorry this is crazy it's an incredible work of art for us on this trip the trains are the destination oh mike i think we are going the wrong way i gotta turn around yeah you gotta start a wrap around but in doing so they reveal a number of side destinations along the way that i didn't even know about until i get here that's why taking these train trips are so important for will it's about the big bucket list items but for me it's enjoying the small things like watching the sunset as we drive through new mexico into utah or drinking a polygamy portal polygamy porter when in utah i'm saying someone's happy i said i'm just happy to be here or waking up to this backdrop oh my goodness what wow utah is awesome you got to do it and maybe you end up on a place that you recognize from an old movie is this another bucket list item this is definitely one one of my favorite movies all right let's keep going more to see but at the end of the day i'm trying to get will to the grand canyon so we've come to williams arizona to ride the grand canyon railway where thanks to siri and john i learned that the back deck is the best place to be so i made sure i booked will and i in the best seats offered for his final bucket list train in america so subscribe now to come along as we head to the grand canyon on my way to america's most northern train station or join and become a member of the channel and watch the next episode right now see you next week on downey live travels by train

Channel: DownieLive

Views: 457,454

Keywords: downielive, downie live, travels by train, American train, steam train, steam trains, durango, durango and silverton, durango & silverton, durango steam train, colorado steam train, colorado, colorado usa, usa steam train

Id: 2hGi0Lwgdg4

Length: 13min 55sec (835 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 24 2022