With a layer of white snow blanketing the mountains of southwest Colorado and a crisp bluebird sky covering the landscape on Feb. 23, 2024, a deep black steam locomotive traversed the edge of a steep cliff on the Highline Express.
"In a dramatic display of sights and sounds, the cold weather made for towering plumes of steam accompanied by ear-splitting exhaust reverberating off the canyon walls, peppering the snow-covered landscape with soot and cinders," Joe Fusco wrote about his experience documenting the last coal burner on the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad.
A 143-year tradition came to an end a year ago this week as the No. 481 engine marked the last of the Durango & Silverton's steam locomotives that the railroad company converted from burning coal to oil. While major railroads across the country have steadily converted their trains to more environmentally friendly fuel sources, the Durango-Silverton has a checkered past with coal that may have been the last straw for this railroad to make the change.
Crime
Durango-area railroad sued over 416 Fire
Businesses and residents sued the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, accusing the company of starting the 416 Fire in 2018. The wildfire destroyed approximately 54,000 acres and cost the U.S. government about $25 million to extinguish, a federal lawsuit said at the time. A civil lawsuit claimed the company acted carelessly by running its coal-fired train during an extreme drought. Federal fire investigators eventually determined the June 2018 fire was ignited by burning particles emitted from an exhaust stack on one of the train’s iconic coal-burning engine locomotives.
To say goodbye to the company's last coal burner, the railroad offered a winter photography special in 2024, where approximately 50 to 100 photographers like Fusco could access the railroad from remote locations that were normally out of reach by road.
"They made this photo special, sort of the farewell to coal burning, because they were converting one locomotive at a time," Fusco said. "And this engine in the video, the No. 481 — which turns 100 this year, by the way — was the last to be converted."
Engine No. 481 was built in 1925 for the Denver & Rio Grande Western (the previous name of Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad between 1881 and 1981), the Durango Herald reported.
Fusco got a unique perspective of that locomotive during the 2024 winter photography special — driving full speed ahead through remote terrain. The railroad company set up several spots where the photographers and videographers could get out and take photos or video of the train. The engineer would back the locomotive up out of sight and then drive past the line of people a couple times.
See the unbelievable video below:
"You're in the middle of some of the most beautiful scenery in a very rare situation where you have a 100-year-old steam locomotive that they're basically chauffeuring you around all through these beautiful places. So that part is amazing," Fusco said.
During the drive-bys, the train operators showed off the musical aspect of the locomotive's whistle as well.
"As they go, you'll hear the rhythm of the chugging — that's the steam exhausting out of the cylinders. The faster they go, the faster the rhythm and... the whistles are like musical instruments. They make them with different numbers of notes," Fusco explained. "The whistle in the Durango video is a five chime. That means it has five notes and it plays out a chord like on an organ... and the engineer has fun playing with that and making different sounds and having it echo off the mountains.
The clear sound of the train resounding through the mountains in Fusco's film required special forethought on his part. He put a secondary audio recorder out several feet in front of the line of photographers and videographers to reduce the sound of camera clicks in the background. While there were 50 to 100 people with tripods intertwining trying to get the best possible view, Fusco said there was an etiquette among the group.
Fusco requested special access that day to ride in the cab to get a closeup of the firemen shoveling coal from the tender into the firebox. Fusco described it as an art as much as a science. The coal can't just pile up in one spot. It has to be spread into the corners of the firebox, addressing dead spots where the fire is not burning as intensely.
"People say that steam locomotives almost seem alive, because when you fire them up, it's not by the flip of a switch. You have to get there early in the morning or sometimes the night before. Light a fire, and then that fire will grow for hours. And when you're done with it, guess what? You got to put it to bed. It doesn't just shut off," Fusco said. "So you wake it up... and it will hiss at you, it will make noises. It will creak... They're temperamental, but in a very personable way, so that really draws me to it."
To capture such vivid shots of the No. 481 locomotive tracing its way through the San Juan National Forest and along the Animas River, Fusco had to climb through snow up to his waist at one point. He was so committed to the project, he even lost a foot to one of the legs on his tripod in the snow during filming.
"If you were to try to achieve some of these shots on your own without going on the photo special, it would take you weeks, months of hiking to capture the one train or two trains or three trains a day that come through," Fusco said.
But he was prepared, equipped with his cold weather gear and the goal of capturing the winter wonderland scene.
"I view trains as a way to experience a landscape, because of the way the rails have to negotiate through that landscape... You just have these beautiful views. And the railroad kind of becomes part of the landscape. In that way, it becomes a fixture of it," Fusco said.
The Pennsylvania man works as a physics teacher for his 9-5 job, but his "hobby run amok" — as he jokingly calls it — is trains, photography and filmmaking.
"A steam locomotive — I will travel across the country and outside the country to go see it because there's so few of them left. They're just so visual and auditory," Fusco told Denver7.
It may seem like a surprisingly long way to travel from Pennsylvania to Colorado to see a train, but there's so much behind Fusco's passion for trains.
"Until you go and experience it, you don't get it... It feels like you're standing next to a living creature," Fusco said.
It all started when Fusco was a young boy. His grandfather worked as a conductor on the Reading Railroad — a stop you may recognize on a Monopoly game board. Even after his grandfather left the company, Fusco's dad and grandfather would take him on trips to see trains.
"That love of trains was still in him long after he left the railroad, and he delighted in sharing it with me," Fusco said.
He was 15 years old when he first visited Colorado.
"Whenever we'd go to a gift shop, we'd pick up a VHS tape of a railroad. 'Oh, we haven't been to this one.' We'd watch the VHS tape, and that's how we learned about places like the Cumbres and Toltec, the Durango and Silverton, and watch those on repeat," Fusco said.
Fusco's dad enjoyed taking home movies of their trips, and before long, Fusco's grandfather gave him a camera of his own to document the adventures. While he still pursued a career in science, Fusco took classes in filmmaking in college and would post some of his pictures and videos on the Internet before YouTube existed.
More recently, he decided to post the video of the last Durango-Silverton coal burner on Denver7's Discover Colorado | Through Your Photos group on Facebook.
"My hope is to continue to be able to travel and document them and create an experience for people to see and maybe see the videos like I saw when I was growing up on my VHS tapes, and say, 'Hey, I want to go there,'" Fusco said.