Why the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railway is More Fun Than the Durango & Silverton

If you like the experience of riding a historical train through the beautiful Rocky Mountains behind an historical steam locomotive, then you will love to ride the Durango & Silverton and the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railway. Both tourist railroads were connected at one time as parts of the now defunct Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad, but were separated back in the 1950's when most of the D&RGW was torn up and sold off. Although both tourist railroads travel through the beautiful scenery of the Rocky Mountains, the scenery and the history of each are very different.

Why is the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railway more fun to ride than the Durango & Silverton? The Durango & Silverton is privately owned and visitors are not permitted unlimited access to railroad property other than the tourist shops and the museum in Durango. The Durango & Silverton also does not allow passengers to ride on the platforms outside the railroad cars while moving. I am sure these restrictions are for insurance reasons. However, in contrast, the Cumbres & Toltec is jointly owned by the states of Colorado and New Mexico and does allow unlimited access to all of its property. It also allows passengers to ride on the platforms outside the railroad cars without any restriction.

If you are a serious lover of the sounds, smells and sights of the early, smoke-belching iron horses that helped to conquer the wild west, then the Cumbres & Toltec is for you...because you can ride on the platform outside of the lead railroad car right behind the locomotive & tender a few feet behind the engineer and the fireman and pretend you are driving the train. You get the smoke, the cinders, the chuff-chuff of the engine and sound of the clanking metal as you jerk along through the wilderness. It's a real experience enjoying the real thing.

Riding the old narrow gauge through the glorious colors of the Aspen and Colorado Blue Spruce in the fall and experiencing first-hand what it was like driving a historical steam locomotive over the streams and through the canyons of the Rockies in the days of the wild west gets in your blood...and you love it!