Hi, All -
As noted on another thread, IMHO there are better things to spend money on than re-laying the third rail from Alamosa to Antonito.
OTOH, I strongly believe it would be worthwhile to re-lay the third rail from the present C&TS yard back into Antonito, and to replicate most of the D&RGW three-rail trackage surrounding the depot and perhaps another ¼ to ½ mile into town. If the dual-gauge wye were replicated, it would have to include the "draw" (aka "swish")
* which moved the third rail from one side to the other - this in itself would make an interesting museum display.
The photo below shows #483 in Antonito on November 24, 1968, pulling the National Park Service Special. IIRC, the photo was taken by Ernie Robart from the top of the water tower; it appears on page 107 of '
Rio Grande Narrow Gauge - The Final Years, Alamosa to Chama' which he co-authored with Joseph P. Hereford, Jr., and was scanned with Ernie's permission for use in Volume I of the "Help Save #483" fundraising screen saver.
(There's a MUCH sharper version of the above photo, based on a hi-res scan of the original negative, at the bottom of my post at [
ngdiscussion.net].)
Note that there is no narrow-gauge third rail on what was left of the 'Chili Line' adjacent to the depot. This seems very strange, especially since the original line was narrow gauge. Was the third rail removed when the line to Santa Fe was abandoned in 1941?
- Russ
* Unlike switches, "draws" have neither moving points nor frogs, but they do depend on guard rails to 'draw' the narrow-gauge wheels from one side to the other. IIRC, historian John Maxwell referred to them as 'swishes', but that term appears to be no longer in use
. . .
Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 12/26/2019 05:04PM by Russo Loco.