Interesting Letter about snow along the D&RGW

Today I received this letter in the mail, and I thought I would share most of it with you guys, since poles, snow and winter ops are discussed here quite often.

Dear Mr. Scholl,

Last week I watched your program "First Train to Toltec" on the RFD channel. One of the scenes depicted the train going through some snow near Windy Point and the narrator made the comment that even in May (and it was 1997) there was still 5-6 feet of snow. I knew I had to write.

I grew up in Chama, New Mexico during the years of 1950-1962. Back in those days(the good ole days), it was common for there to be 5-6 feet of snow on the ground in Chama from October to April. Cumbres Pass was usually impassable. My father owned the telephone company in Chama. The telephone lines you see along the side of the train track were installed by him in the early 1950's. I am enclosing a photo of he and friend that was taken at the top of Cumbres Pass in the winter of 1951-52. They are sitting on the top of a 25-foot telephone pole. If repairs had to be made during the winter he would take the train and his snowshoes. Many is the time that he had to dig down to get into the buildings on top of Cumbres Pass since they were totally snowed over.

Anyway I just thought you might enjoy the picture. I so enjoy your train videos.

Sincerely,

Marilyn Reeves
Inola, Oklahoma

Gregs Note: The photo shows her father Mr. Reeves on the left side, and Louie Layton on the right. The are sitting on one-half of the top horizontal piece of the telephone pole and their feet are just below the diagonal braces leading to the top piece. About 6-8 inches below their feet is the top of the snow. The image is scanned from a print, so it would not show well here. Anyway thought it was interesting that she cared enough to write a letter.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/20/2017 11:38AM by Greg Scholl.