Today, Friday, we drove into Durango to take the tour of the railroad yard and roundhouse at 10:30 am.  An excellent tour guide spent an hour with us showing us the turntable outside used to position all incoming trains for riding rails into the roundhouse where they are sheltered and where all repair work is done.  The work is unique in that no one else makes these parts or the tools to use to maintain this old equipment.  We also got to see the inside where the parts are made and stored, as well as where the maintenance is done.

Turntable with Roundhouse in Background

Closeup of Roundhouse

Bays in Roundhouse

Empty Bay in Roundhouse

Wheel Assemblies Under Repair

After that we were able to walk around inside the free railroad museum.  As with many places in this part of the country, when someone has a business or other establishment, he fills it with stuffed animals or other wild west items alongside the necessary and normal subjects of his trade.  We saw this at the restaurant yesterday in Silverton, where stuffed animals and mannequins of various kinds were crowded into every available space.  This museum was no exception.   Included along with excellent railroad items were many stuffed animals, then old airplanes and cars that made history.  Then there were old six guns and mannequins in uniform of soldiers from past wars along with photos of related events.  There were also several working model railroads and full sized rail cars.

This is what greets you as you enter the railroad museum

More of what greets you

Finally . . . 19th Century Steam Locomotive

Betty Inside Caboose

Betty Inspects Living Quarters Inside Caboose

Upper Level Inside Caboose

 After we spent about another hour in the museum, we went to the Strater Hotel's restaurant, the Diamond Belle Saloon, for lunch with two fellow travelers.  The Strater Hotel is where I spent a couple nights on my tour in 2006, an excellent historic restoration of a 19th century Victorian hotel, replete with period furnishings.  I was expecting something similar in the restaurant, but instead found a representation of an old West saloon, replete with saloon girls as waitresses and a 19th century painting of a naked woman over the door.  There were even a few bullet holes in the wall behind the bar.  The food and service were good enough to be worth a visit if you are interested.

Our Waitress

19th century waitresses had tattoos on their backs?

 Louis L'Amour, the famed old West story writer, used to stay at the Strater often in the room over the saloon.  He liked the honky-tonk piano sounding through the floor of his room.  It helped inspire his writing, and most of his works were penned in that room over the saloon.  After lunch, we decided to walk around town some more, then remembered we needed to check the parking meters where we had parked.  Our fellow travelers got to their car just as it ran out of time.  I was ten minutes late.  A yellow envelope under the windshield wiper contained a $25 fine.  This town has a low regard for tourists.  We drove back to the RV park where strong winds were making us wonder what kind of weather was coming our way.  It  seems to have settled down now.  Tomorrow we may just take it easy in our motorhome and prepare for departure on Sunday morning.  Our next stop will be in Bluff, Utah, near Monument Valley.  That is an area loved by John Ford, and many John Wayne movies were filmed there, like How the West Was Won.