Personal Projects, Photography, and Pointless Pontifications
The C&TS – Back in Action
The Cumbres & Toltec Scenic is currently probably the best hope for preservation of Rio Grande-style narrow gauge railroading. During a normal season, they operate daily trains over the 64 miles between Antonito, CO, and Chama, NM, cresting the 10052-foot Cumbres Pass and tackling four percent grades. This season, however, has been anything but normal.
Starting back in May, the Federal Railroad Administration declared some of the roadbed around MP 319 and 316 to be unsound and in need of repair. This essentially severed the railroad into three pieces – the Chama end, the Antonito end, and Osier isolated in the middle between the points. As work neared completion to stabilize the roadbed at these two points, both National Forests slapped closure orders of questionable legality on the railroad due to the high fire danger this year. Since a large portion of the line operates through Rio Grande and Carson National Forests, this essentially shut down the railroad from 7-June-2002 through 16-July-2002. Already in need money, five weeks of closure hurt the operating company irreparably and in mid-July the Rio Grande Railway Preservation Corp. made it known that they would most likely not be able to recover to operate the line next year.
Both closure orders have now been lifted on the condition that the C&TS continue to provide heavy fire suppression along with its trains – tank cars of spraying water, the speeders following behind, and the noisy red fire tanker paralleling on Highway 17 out of Chama. Initially, on 16-July, the first runs ran just from Chama to Cumbres, and ridership wasn’t bad considering the shutdown. Then, a week later on 23-July, trips resumed from Chama to Osier, Tuesday-Saturday. At last, on 30-July, normal service resumed on Tuesday through Saturday from both ends of the railroad.
For those who would ask, “Why railfan instead of buying a ticket and riding?” the simple answer is I already hold a season pass – so ride, railfan, sit at home, the C&TS already has more money from me than they get in two normal years. I bought it during the depths of the shutdown as my way of showing support and putting revenues into the railroad during its darkest hours. While I’d intended to ride the train, I’m hoping to drag a few friends along when I do and put more revenue passengers on board. This time, it was just me and my camera – and the rain. There’s not much to say, so I’ll just let the photos and the captions tell the story.
The first sight of the morning after leaving the Narrow Gauge Inn – 487 being prepped in Antonito, CO.
Even though it was raining most of the day, fire protection is still the rule. Now, if the truck would just start…
About 1015h, we’re finally on the move just outside Chama, NM. 497 and 463 are double-heading up to Cumbres Pass
Another of the safety measures in place is these tank cars behind the power. They water the right-of-way to hopefully prevent any sparks from taking hold. They also do a very good job of watering railfans…
No problems so far, and the rain has even let up a bit as the train heads up the mountain along New Mexico 17.
Rain hasn’t deterred the fans a bit, though – probably 15 cars are following that Saturday’s run out of Chama.
As the train heads towards Lobato through this famous curve, it’s starting to drizzle a bit again. It’s kind of a rare sight seeing a morning train on Cumbres in the rain.
Moving away from the horde of fans lined up along the fence, the train slows to a stop for Lobato.
The Lobato Trestle isn’t strong enough to safely support the weight of two locomotives at once, especially when one of them is a gargantuan K-37 class. So, as with every double and triple header, the power is taken over one at a time.
Especially for those shooting video (with sound), there’s no escape from this thing…
With the train back together and climbing again, the train passes over the Dalton grade crossing
Well, I haven’t seen any forest fires, but that grass sure is pretty…
Let the problems begin! A broken brake hose stops the train on a stiff grade just south of Cresco and the state line.
With the hose fixed and a full brake test performed, the train slides backwards initially while the two units slip repeatedly in an effort to get moving again on the wet rail.
Finally getting a foothold, the two continue up through the S-curve towards Cresco and the Colorado/New Mexico line.
Just shy of the west Cresco switch, problems once again are about to show up. Another brake hose separation, along with the realization that a brake linkage has snapped on the tank car, CATS 0472.
The troubled eastbound continues its journey near Coxo, just below Windy Point.
Almost at the summit, 497 and 463 skirt around the ledge to Windy Point, CO.
After a long trip up, the train finally slows to a stop at the Cumbres Pass station. The helper will be unhooked here, and the water car set out for repairs.
The truck with the failed linkage. Note the position of the front brake shoes. Apparently it’s not too severe, though, as the idea is to haul it back to Chama and have the shop guys weld it.
With the big K-37 cut off and out of the way, little K-27 463 slowly drags the crippled car forward to set it out on the leg of the wye.
With the tank car set out and 463 back on the eastbound train, 497 backs onto the wye to clear up the main.
Wying the mini-train to Chama.
Running behind schedule due to the problems, 463 and crew waste no time once 497 and tanker have cleared up.
Not quite ready to head down the hill… 497 and CATS 0472 will back down to the Los Pinos tank to fill the tank car before making the return trip. Los Pinos is the best choice, since Cresco is dry and Cumbres is having supply issues due to piping.
This shot really isn’t in order – it’s 497 back at Cumbres preparing to head downhill. I just liked the shot.
Just a look at the railfan-sprinkler on the Antonito train – definitely not as good looking as CATS 0472 (Rotary OY’s water tender) on the Chama train.
Spotted while heading for lunch – MW02 parked in the Chama yard.
Running over an hour behind, the westbound finally shows up heading towards the Los Pinos tank for water.
After refilling the water tank in the tender, 487 and train continue east towards the summit.
Almost there – Cumbres Pass is off in the trees to the left, but 487 will head out and around another Los Pinos-style loop to finish gaining the elevation needed.
The first blue sky and spotty sunlight we’ve seen all day fades in and out as the westbound pulls in to the Cumbres station – elevation 10052 ft.
It’s all downhill from here… The train has come down from Windy Point and is nearing Coxo as it crosses Colorado Hwy 17. At this point, the rain had started again with a vengence, so I headed back for Antonito
The headlight in the distance may not be what you think it is – in this case, it’s 19, the C&TS’s diesel-electric, hurrying back to Antonito ahead of the storm.
Thirty-five minutes later, the eastbound passenger train starts up the grade into Antonito. At this point, the ominous-looking storm is almost upon us – the rain is pouring on the ridge just behind the train.
Storm lighting makes for some strange shots… but I love the speeder in the background (yet another fire control measure)
The speeder turns out to be C&TS 012, and judging by the tank level I’d say they used it at some point during the day.
A little after 1800h, 463 and train pull into Antonito. After nearly half a season without through trains, this marks the first Saturday that Antonito has had train service.
Headed down to Chama, caboose 0306 disappears around the curve. The C&TS has had a very rough year so far from factors both within and outside of its control – please consider riding this year, they’re going to need all the revenue they can get.
This work is copyright 2022 by Nathan D. Holmes, but all text and images are licensed and reusable under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license. Basically you’re welcome to use any of this as long as it’s not for commercial purposes, you credit me as the source, and you share any derivative works under the same license. I’d encourage others to consider similar licenses for their works.
