The Ultimate Narrow Gauge Charter - or 5 Days on the Rio Grande

Last Wednesday I returned from a 5 day photo charter at the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad and finished processing the first shots last night. ; For those not familiar with the C&TS, it is a 64 mile portion of the old Denver & Rio Grande Western narrow gauge railroad. ; In 1879, the decision was made to build a narrow gauge line from Alamosa, Colorado west to Durango, Colorado and then on to the rich mining region around Silverton, Colorado which became known as the San Juan Extension. ; Narrow gauge was selected since the smaller equipment and narrower wheel base allows for tighter radius curves that are better suited to mountain railroading. ; Construction reached the town of Antonito, Colorado in April of 1880 and Chama, New Mexico in December of 1880. ; Passenger service was suspended on the line in the early 1950's and the last freight was run west to Durango on December 5th 1968 after which the line was abandoned by the D&RGW. ;

Fortunately for us railfans, the states of Colorado and New Mexico saw the opportunity to preserve the line and through an act of Congress, created a bi-state commission to purchase and oversee the operation of the railroad. ; In July of 1970 the commission paid $547,120 for the 64 miles of track between Chama and Antonito along with a large selection of locomotives and rolling stock. ;

Most charters on this line are only one or two days long, start in Chama and only run as far east as Osier because the historic freight cars are all located in the Chama yard. ; On a short charter, you would loose too much time getting the cars out to Antonito without incurring the cost of multiple train crews so the east end is rarely photographed. ; For those reasons, this 5 day charter was very appealing because the extra days would allow us to shoot many locations over the entire length of the line and spread out the costs of extra crews over the entire trip. ; The icing on the cake was the fact that the operators planned to run mid train helpers westbound from Antonito to Cumbres Pass and a rear pusher eastbound from Chama to Cumbres Pass which was historically accurate. ; Again, most charters don't bother with the extra engines and when they do, they often run inaccurate double headers. ; Needless to say, I signed up the day tickets went on sale.

 

Now on to the pictures... ; For simplicity, I'll start on the west end of the line in Chama, NM and show pictures in order heading east from there.

The first runbys we did were at the old Chama Stockyards just west of the rail yard. ; For this location, we had a double header with the cattle cars just behind the second locomotive:





I arrived a day early and did some shooting around the Chama Yard and Depot while I got used to the elevation. ; Here's a shot of the Depot which is the second on this site, dating to 1899. ; The original depot burned with a large portion of town in 1899. ;



Here's two shots of the crews getting the locomotives ready for the day's passenger train. ; First at the ash pit where the fire is cleaned:



And at the water tank where I caught them washing the fines out of the coal pile after filling the tender:



I also spent some time shooting the two rotary snow plows that are stored in the yard. ; Rotaries "OM" and "OY" spent many years clearing the line which was plagued by heavy snowfall during the winters. ; In the 1990's they were restored and used to clear the line in the spring until in 1997 a locomotive hit some ice in at a grade crossing causing it to jump the tracks and roll over. ; That was the last time they were used. ; Here's a shot of "OY" in the late afternoon sun:



More to come...

 

Thanks Tim! ; You're too kind.

 

Thanks Jeff

 

Wow! ; These are stunning! ; Great work and I am sure was a great time as well!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Awesome as usual!!!

 

you are the trainmaster. someday i hope to catch this line.

 

Great information Michael and nice images as usual.

 

Thanks, guys!

John, it was a lot of fun. ; There were some minor frustrations that were the result of having two people running the charter, but once they got the kinks worked out, it was great!

Gary, it would definitely be worth the trip. ; My recommendation would be to ride westbound out of Antonito to Chama one day and then take the next day to photograph the activity in the Chama yard before the train leaves and then chase it up the hill to Cumbres Pass so you get to hear it work up the grade. ; If the moon isn't out and there aren't any clouds, it's also worth taking a drive up to Cumbres at night to shoot the Milky Way.

I'll post more shots in the morning.

 

Now for Part II on the Chama Yard...

We'll start with an overall view of the depot that I shot after the passenger train left. ; The building in the distance is a modern restroom building that was built in a historically compatible style:



487 & 488 double head through the yard, pulling a freight train past the coal tipple. ; The tipple was built in 1924 and is currently undergoing restoration by the Friends of the Cumbres and Toltec. ; Cars carrying coal would be pushed up the inclined track to the left of the tipple where the coal would be dumped in a pit and then hoisted to the top of the structure and dumped into the tipple. ; The tipple is thought to be the only one still operable although the machinery is undergoing restoration at this time and coal is being loaded into the tenders with a skidloader:





And a shot of 487 & 488 sitting at the coal tipple during the night shoot. ; It isn't hard to imagine them getting ready for an early morning departure:



Here's a couple of shots from a series of runbys at the water tank. ; The tank is the standard D&RGW design built around 1907 with a capacity of 50,000 gallons. ; This tank is somewhat unique because it has two water spouts allowing two locomotives to take water at the same time. ; Most water towers only had one spout.

The engineer climbs down to check the bearings while the fireman fills the tender:



488 pulls a freight through the yard past some tank cars waiting to be filled with oil at the oil loading dock. ; The Gramps oil fields north of Chama supplied oil to the dock by pipeline where it was loaded into tank cars which were then taken to a refinery at Alamosa. ; After 1963, oil was carried by truck resulting in a decline in freight traffic on the line:



One final shot from the yard from the night shoot. ; Here we have all four of the C&TS' operable K36 class locomotives under steam in one shot. ; 487 is on the left with 488 behind her. ; 489 is in the middle and 484 is on the right. ; Interestingly, all but one of the D&RGW K36 locomotives survived and a couple more are operational on the Durango & Silverton. ; 485 is the only one that didn't survive, having been scrapped after falling into the turntable pit in Alamosa:



Next we start the climb to Cumbres Pass. ; More on that later...

 

More great stuff Michael! ; Love the one with the water tank. ; It must have been pretty awesome to see all four during that night shoot!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Thanks, John! ;

 

Sorry, Dennis. ; I didn't get any closeups of the little diesel parked on the coal tipple lead. ; I was focused on steam.

 

You're probably right Dennis. ; But I would have regretted it more if I missed any steam shots since the management situation out there is consistently deteriorating due to micromanaging by the commission and political meddling by a small contingent of the friends...

 

Anyway, ; now for today's installment of the trip report. ; As you can tell this is going to be a long report given the great weather and length of the trip. ;

I had hoped to get a shot of the train crossing the bridge just past the yard and then again at Juke's Tree but we were warned not to go there by the railroad. ; Apparently the land in that area had recently been turned over to one of the indian tribes and they have started confiscating cameras to try to keep photographers off their land, so we stayed well clear of the area. ; So, the first runby location outside the yard was at Broad Spur which was once the location of a lumber-loading spur track named for F.W. Broad, a Chama lumberman:



The from there, the train enters the narrows and starts up a 4% grade to the top of Cumbres Pass. ; We catch the train in the sunlight again about two miles east at the other end of the narrows. ; Here's a shot running eastbound with the freight train:



And a shot of the locomotive returning westbound to Chama with just the caboose:



About a half mile east, the train reaches Lobato Siding. ; A small depot and a strange looking water tank were built here in the fall of 1970 for the first movie shot on the C&TS, "Shootout" staring Gregory Peck. ; This location is also referred to by the name of the town in "Shootout", Weed City. ; The location was used on several other movies before the depot collapsed during the winter of 1991-1992. ; Indiana Jones fans may recognize this as the location where young Indy grabs the water spout and spins around landing back on the train in the opening sequence of "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade."



Next up is Lobato Trestle which suffered major fire damage two years ago and has since been repaired. ; Almost all of the locomotive maintenance is done in Chama, but with the trestle out none of the locomotives could get to the locomotive shop. ; So, the railroad had to truck all of the locomotives out of Chama to the top of Cumbres pass which served as the western terminus of the line until the trestle repairs were complete. ; They installed septic so they could drain the passenger car restrooms and had to do all of the locomotive servicing outside in the weather at the top of the pass. ;

This hillside in the distance was once a favorite runby location during charters, but relations with the landowner have soured preventing charters from using that location for the last several years. ;



About 3/4 of a mile east is Lobo Lodge, now known as Rancho Del Oso Pardo:





Next we catch the freight train with the rear helper at the Rt 17 crossing east of the ranch:



About a half mile east we catch the locomotive drifting down hill with the caboose after taking one section of the Cumbres Turn up the hill. ; Due to the steep 4% grade larger trains headed east out of Chama could not make the climb up the hill in one section, so they were broken into 2-3 smaller sections and taken up the hill one at a time using a rear train helper and then re-connected in the small yard at the top of the pass. ; This practice was called the "Cumbres Turn" by the D&RGW.



Next we catch the freight train running eastbound at the Cresco Trestle, just below Cresco Tank:



And finally we catch the locomotive running westbound with the caboose at Cresco Tank. ; The white cross to the right of the locomotive was placed there in memory of one of the Friends volunteers who died of a massive heart attack while working to restore Cresco Tank to operation. ;



We're now halfway through the climb to Cumbres Pass which makes a good stopping point for today.

 

you are the man for trains, this makes me realize i need to finish the ballparks thing so i can start on these train places