Durango & Silverton Opening Weekend 2009

The Durango & Silverton’s Fall Photographers Special has been a Colorado railfan staple for years. Back in 2005, they introduced the annual Winter Photographers Specials, and this year, they introduced a spring train – the Presidential Photo Special. The train ran with all premium service cars (meaning, painted maroon and normally used for the Presidential, First, and Deluxe class services – intended to emulate what a business train might look like on the narrow gauge) on the Friday before the regular summer season trains started. From my point of view, it was just a chance to shoot a D&S train without the yellow cars, and to get some shots in the upper canyon early in the season. Plus I’d never ridden in the premium cars, and thought it might be a nice change. What follows are the results of the Presidential Special on Friday, 1-May-2009, as well as shots of the opening day trains on Saturday, 2-May-2009.

Presidential Photo Special – Friday, May 1, 2009

D&S Opening Day – Saturday, May 2, 2009


All photographs in this trip report were taken with a Canon EOS 40D using either a Canon 24-105mm F4 L IS/USM, Sigma 18-50mm, or a Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS/USM.

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