kcsivils Wrote:
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> During the heyday of the oil and gas boom, what
> would be the typical number of trains run each
> week?

Based on information below & elsewhere, I'd guess ten to twelve trains in each direction per week – it was basically a 24/7 operation in the mid-fifties.  See also [ngdiscussion.net].

Andrew Roth Wrote:
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> When did the pipe, drilling mud & other supplies
> shipments to Farmington start to diminish and
> when were they basically done? Were there still
> a lot of shipments in 1966?


Per page 13 of Rio Grande Narrow Gauge – The Final Years, Alamosa to Chama by Hereford & Robart:

"During the last four years that the Rio Grande ran freight trains over its narrow gauge line, 1965 to 1968 . . . trains were dispatched as needed, declining from a frequency of one or two per week in 1965 (except winter) to only five Alamosa departures in 1968 (not including work and movie trains nor the move of 481 to Durango in December) . . .

"Previously, from 1952 to 1964, the volume of traffic moving west had justified operating one and sometimes two 70-car narrow-gauge trains out of Alamosa each day . . .

"The Alamosa refinery closed in September 1964.  Afterwards, only with rare exceptions did trains operate except to move pipe and drilling mud {to Aztec & Farmington} . . .

"The lumber traffic {eastbound from Durango & Chama}, although it did not approach the volume of drilling supplies, contributed in 1967 and 1968 about 250 carloads to the narrow gauge.  The last livestock moved over the railroad in October 1966."

Here are a couple of Ernie's shots from 1966 that I scanned for him a few years ago –
The train of August 23 in Aztec, with Ernie's car in the foreground:

Photo copyright © 1966, 2006 by Ernest W. Robart - All Rights Reserved.

. . . and entering leaving Farmington later that day:

Photo copyright © 1966, 2006 by Ernest W. Robart - All Rights Reserved.

- El Abuelo Histœrico, Greengo y Curmudgeoño de los Locomoturas Viejos y Verdes,
aka Der Grossväterlich DünkelOlivGrünDampfKesselMantelLiebHabender



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 11/30/2017 07:28PM by Russo Loco.