Big Diehl Photography

07/22/2026

The Jack Rabbit Trading Post lost half of their iconic sign a couple of days ago in a blast from a monsoon thunderstorm. Here’s the half of the sign that survived a while back as Amtrak’s blasts eastward into the rising sun at 90 mph a few years ago.

Hopefully they’ll have it up and restored soon.

https://www.bigdiehlphoto.com/Trains/Amtrak/i-2cZcDmn

07/15/2026

A sight not seen for over 75 years as Knott's Berry Farm 's Ghost Town and Calico Railroad's 340 is seen crossing the Rio de Las Animas on today's & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad . The skilled mechanical staff of the Durango and Silverton have taken this treasured artifact of Knott's and restored it to like new condition and KBF has allowed the railroad to do public excursions with it.

We find the GT&C heading towards the wye at Cascade in early June of 2026 on a photographer's special.

07/04/2026

Fireworks dot the twilght sky over Chama New Mexico back in 2010 on the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad during the Village of Chama's Independence Day Celebration.

07/04/2026

The summer heat got you down? Watch this cool (ha!) video where we return to the freezing temperatures of Feburary 2026 with the only major snow to hit the region this winter. We catch Rio Grande Southern 20 as it comes down from the Colorado Railroad Museum to run on (almost) home rails for the first time in 75 years.

Yup, the third (THIRD!?!) part of our trip with the ...

07/01/2026

It's June 2026 and we find Knott's Berry Farm's "Ghost Town and Calico Railroad" No.340, a C-19 'Consolidation' built by Baldwin in 1881 for the Denver and Rio Grande, the same line she sits on here in Rockwood Colorado on the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad. This was the final run of the 340 on home rails before being loaded up to return to Knott's the next day.

The Durango Crew has finished a complete rebuild of the 340 which was its most extensive since leaving Baldwin in the 19th Century.

Here we see crews of the Durango and Silverton AND The Ghost Town and Calico posing for photographers after a day on the line where the synergy between the two famed narrow gauge railroads was on display.

06/20/2026

Workin' for the Weekend

Fireman Sam "Beans" of the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad is ready for the job of keeping the 101 year old No.482 well fed on its journey from between the line's two namesake cities.

06/16/2026

Historic Diesel 101 of the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad accelerates (backwards) to clear for the 476 and its vintage freight train to strut its stuff under the iconic Needle Range of the San Juan Mountains between Silverton and Durango.

06/14/2026

Silver Sunday

We're some two hundred feet below the rails of the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad as K-36 481 winds its way along the narrow shelf carved from the cliff face some 145 years ago. Meanwhile, the Rio de Las Animas out runs the train in this portion of the canyon as it marches towards the Colorado River which will be used up and disappear before it gets a chance to reach the ocean at the Gulf of California.

06/13/2026

Workin' for the Weekend

It's almost train time in Durango where we find the engineer of the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad 482 looking back towards his train to recieve the signal from the conductor to depart for Silverton on this early June morning. Ahead, 45 miles along the Animas River to head to the mining town of Silverton some 3000 feet higher, and through some of the most inaccessable terrrain in the lower 48.

06/11/2026

Darkness has enveloped Northern New Mexico and all it encompasses. But the headlights of the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad 's K-36 class locomotives 484 and 488 shine ahead to take a train through the inky blackness out of Chama, New Mexico in August 2025.

Lighting provided by Dak Dillon Photography