Re: Foe Smiting on the C&TS ... (pics)

Hi, Rich -

That's probably one from Tom's March, 1963, expedition that didn't make it into his book
'Narrow Gauge, then and now' and was not sent to me for use in the "Help Save #483"
screen saver, as I don't recall seeing it before.  Back when the "Gramps" refinery was
still in operation, the line was kept clear all winter - or at least as clear as the weather
allowed - but after 1964 operations stopped after the first heavy snows and didn't resume
until late spring, when ice and crusted snow had built up all winter.

The C&TS faced the same foes - crusted snow and ice - in the spring of 1973, when clearing the line in mid-May.   IIRC, the trailing truck of #484, the rear truck of her tender, and the front truck of the flanger were all derailed on May 12th just west of the bridge at the top of Cumbres Pass. A couple of these photos have been posted before, but they were scanned from old and scratchy prints dating from 1978; the following are all from recent scans of the original negatives that haven't seen the light of day for more than thirty years:












I recognize Richard Braden and Jim Shawcroft in some of the above; can any of you supply names for any of the others?

- Russ

p.s. 03/31 - After scanning all 75 negatives and viewing the resulting much larger positives, I realized that the initial ordering of the photos was wrong. The photo of Richard Braden and his fireman performing the time-honored ritual of shoveling snow into the tender was shot late in the afternoon of May 12th (a Saturday, IIRC), and all of the others were shot the following day during the repair of the track and the re-railing of the locomotive and cars. The above photos have been re-sequenced accordingly.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/31/2011 12:25PM by Russo Loco.