Durango & Silverton Railroad. Big Foot Sighting from train

Of all of the " man in a big foot costume" films.

Patterson / Gimlin is still the most convincing.😉

Maybe that's the real reason the President cancelled his planned trip to Colorado?

Why is bigfoot always out of focus? Is he blurry in real life?

When I took a ride on that railroad 25 years ago, the long ride up to Silverton was really interesting,  but the ride back was a very long  drudgery.  (Those hard wooden bench seats.  Oh my aching back!)

I would have welcomed a bit of excitement, including a man running around in a Bigfoot suit!  :-)

As I recall, I saw a few old hippies up in Silverton who looked more like Bigfoot than this recent guy in the suit.   With his big sunglasses, he looked more like "Cousin It."

Mannyrock

As Mark stated, why does each person who "sees and films" bigfoot use a camera from the 1800's?

To Manny's point above - does anyone know if the seats have been upgraded on the D&S?

Paul

I used to take the backpacker's train during my younger mountaineering and hiking days on the D&S.

I can say with confidence that I never saw Bigfoot.  I did however see mountain goats in my campsite who could care less about us being there, marmots that would walk right up to us looking for food handouts, beavers, and picas popping up between the rock scree above tree line.

The ride back was always made more comfortable by the cold beer that my fellow climbing partners and I consumed after a week at 12,000 feet or higher.  My most exciting trip was having a bolt shear off the deck plate between the locomotive and tender while sitting on that shelf 400 feet above the Animas River.  After an hour or so of discussion and communication with the team back in Durango they made the decision to remove the plate completely and fire the locomotive with a gap.

Fond memories of a great trips.  No Bigfoot sightings though.  I must not have been looking close enough.

I saw him years ago - he ducked behind the engine just as I was taking the photo. He is really fast!  That may be him looking at me just above and to the left of the smokestack. He is also a master of disguise.

Took the Durango train a couple of weeks ago, and (unfortunately) no Yeti sightings, but otherwise a great trip.  It rained like crazy, and was cold, but the scenery was awesome.    I felt bad for the people who had tickets for the open car, as they were wet and freezing when we pulled into Silverton.  Took the bus back down to Durango as my backside wouldn't survive another three hours on a wooden seat.  Stopped twice for water on the way up.   I'm thinking of attempting to make a water tower like theirs for my layout.  

If you're ever there, check out the (free) museum adjacent to the loading area in Durango.  It's full of interesting stuff (including a nice train layout).  When you walk into a museum that smells like machine oil, you know it's going to be good.  

Are hard seats the only option on the D&S? I have a bad back and neck issues and while this ride looks awesome - I'm not sure it would be worth the physical toll afterwards.

Paul - planning for this upcoming retirement ...

Bring a cushion !

@Railrunnin posted:

Are hard seats the only option on the D&S? I have a bad back and neck issues and while this ride looks awesome - I'm not sure it would be worth the physical toll afterwards.

Paul - planning for this upcoming retirement ...

Ride the parlor car, worth the extra fare, last car on train, can ride on rear platform when you want.

Thank you Arthur. This is certainly a train I want to ride.

Paul

Maybe it was just railfanning.😁

I rode on it a couple weeks ago and rode in a coach that had padded seats.  The parlor car was sold out. It looked like the open cars had just wooden benches, so if you can spring for the extra, do a coach.  We rode the train in both directions and the coach was a good choice fo us. It’s definitely a great experience!

In the July (2008) after I retired from BNSF, my wife and I chartered the parlor car and half of the car ahead and took our large family, plus invited guests.  My boss retired the same day as I did, and he and his wife were with us.  Long time friend Stan Kistler and his wife came from California, and my good friend and fellow railroader, Rod Riley and his wife, came from Emporia, Kansas.  As I recall it, the car ahead of the parlor had padded walkover seats.  All seats in the parlor car were very comfortable and the car attendant gave excellent service.  We all flowed back and forth between the two cars.  They only sell 16 fares for the parlor car, but they were fine with more than 16 of us being in the car, as we were all together as a group.

But comfort is where you find it, and here is my friend Rod, catching a power nap on a wooden bench in the rear platform of the parlor car as the train returned to Durango.