Narrow Gage Pickup Truck

I was looking through some old photos the other day and found these pictures of Coker's truck in a previous life. This truck has been on the narrow gage, hauling railroaders and railroad stuff for 32 years now since 1975 when I brought it home from Parsons, Kansas, where it had been retired after a carreer of delivering groceries. In 1976 we undertook the first locomotive running gear overhaul since the birth of the C&TS. Since we had no milling machine at the time, I hauled all the side rods from 484 to my dad's shop in Los Alamos in this truck for re-boring of the rod ends. As I recall, that load was about all the truck wanted.

This picture was taken in September 1977 at the "White House" on W. 7th St. in Chama. That load is about 3/4 of a cord of Engleman Spruce gathered near Cumbres. Probably about 6 weeks worth of winter heat.


Here we are looking east at the HWY 17 crossing just north of town waiting for the eastbound passenger train to cross. Boss, on top of the truck, was pretty much a permanent fixture around the roundhouse and yards from 1975 to 1980.


In the early spring of 1979, I returned home from a tour at sea to find this scene at our "Rancho Grande" just west of Chama on HWY 64. The young snow shoveler just graduated from medical school this past spring. His mom made it pretty clear that one railroader in the family was enough.