Durango & Silverton Locomotive 315 Steams Again!

Last summer a piece of history came alive again!
The 1895 Denver & Rio Grande Western (D&RGW) locomotive 315 was steamed up on August 24, 2007 for the first time in 58 years-since October 1949! The 315, owned
by the City of Durango, was restored by the Durango Railroad Historical Society, a nonprofit group founded in 2000. It now accurately looks as it did in 1940.

The 315 began its life as Florence & Cripple Creek No. 3, "Elkton," at the largest gold rush in Colorado history, just a few miles southwest of Pikes Peak. When the United States entered World War I in 1917, the Denver & Rio Grande bought the engine. It served as a road engine, mainly on the route from Gunnison to Montrose and Ouray. It spent
its last operating years as a switch engine in Durango from 1941 to 1949.

The 315 was a star in the first Hollywood western railroad movie in southwest Colorado, "Colorado Territory," shot around Durango in 1948. Jackson Clark saved the engine from being scrapped in 1950. It was put in a park, dressed in a movie smokestack, headlight and cowcatcher to make it look like an 1870's engine. It appeare in one more movie, "Around the World in 80 Days" in 1956. No longer operable, it was pushed by a diesel hidden in a car behind it.

On display for over 50 years, unprotected, the 315 suffered from the weather, thieves, and vandals. For over six years a core group of about a dozen volunteers spent thousands of
hours of work-and fun-on the project. Other volunteers occasionally helped, some from as far away as England and Switzerland. About fifty businesses and organizations contributed materials, loaned tools, supplied equipment
and operators, and performed restoration work free of charge.

After extensive inspection, testing, and analysis the boiler was found to be good, so we could restore the engine to operation All the parts from the locomotive were removed to clean, inspect, and restore each part as necessary. Just about everything was worn badly, allowed to deteriorate with little maintenance as D&RGW squeezed every ounce of life from the old engine before it was retired. In August 2005, the 315 was at its barest-simply a boiler on a frame. The next two years were spent repairing, replacing, and installing parts. The wheel sets were taken to the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad (D&SNGRR) for restoring.

Volunteers were able to find antique appliances to replace almost all the missing ones. Patterns were borrowed to cast some new parts, and new patterns were made when none could be found. We replaced all of the wood, which was rotten, using historical joinery. The rusted and patched
tender tank had to be replaced, but all of its old hardware was reused.

The restoration was expensive; it cost about $400,000 in cash plus about an equal amount of value in donated parts, use of equipment, and labor. The biggest donor was the Colorado Historical Society. CHS also provided a grant to produce interpretative signs and a book (late 2008) about the
history and restoration of 315. The largest supporter in terms of donated parts an services was the D&SNGRR. The 315 volunteer group could not have done the job without the expert advice of the D&SNGRR and the Colorado Railroad Museum.

Please support the 315 maintenance & operations by joining the Society & by purchasing 315 merchandise. For more information, visit the Society's Web site at www.drhs315.org.