C&TS - August, 1982

The “work every day” slog continued thru August. I worked 27 out of 30 days that month. You fans would not believe it, but it did get old after a while. Many years later somebody made the analogy of the movie “Groundhog Day” where each day is a repeat of the previous day, over and over and over…….and over. My only break was getting to fire a couple of days a week. Usually one day I made a round trip to Osier, and then Russ and I would make a trip to Antonito, spend the night, then work our way home.

We had a couple of “happenings” of note. On Aug 8, 489 on Train #4 broke a spring hanger heading east from Osier. I was braking on #3 and we were held for 20 minutes at Los Pinos while management sorted out what to do next. Finally the decided we couldn’t do a whole lot sitting at Los Pinos and turned us loose while the shop drove to Sublette and dealt with the broken hanger.

The next day was spent in Chama. For some reason, I helped hostle 487 in the morning, then spent the rest of the day running #19 while Getman did a major reshuffle of the yard. One might say this my promotion date to engineer, but in reality, being a yard engineer was something most anyone with knowledge of how to stop and start an engine on a signal was qualified for. My guess is I helped hostler 487 to fill out my day. We couldn’t switch until after the passenger train got out of the way.

The first two new cars for Antonito, got repaired and deadheaded back to Antonito to return to service, and wonder of wonders, they seemed to stay on the track – mostly. Later in the month 2 more were finished, deadheaded to Chama for work, sent back over the hill and placed in service. With four “sleds” in service, boxcar coaches began coming off the train and with the end-of-August slump at hand, the 10-11 car train became a 6 car train.

Russ and I were getting burned out and requested a day off together to do something……anything, together. We managed to get that day on August 17. We decided an off-road railfan excursion on the backroads out of Antonito might be fun thing. So, I gassed up the Jeep, bought film, and away we went, following 487 west. We went the “hard way” following the RR up the draw out of Antonito, across the tracks at MP 287.5 up along the state line into the Whiplash. From there we continued up the draw to Big Horn, on to Sublette and Osier. At Osier we got real adventurous and forded the Los Pinos and went through the back country of the headwaters of the Brazos River coming out through Apache Canyon, then back on the pavement to Chama. It was a fun top-down Jeep adventure. We even managed to dodge the monsoon storms and got some interesting pics…

487 charges out of Antonito, August 17, 1982


Up at MP 287.5, 487 shuffles over the trail crossing. Russ gives Dale a "howdy" wave, while my Jeep waits patiently


And crosses the now culvertized trestle at 287.5


From 287.5 the trail heads south to the CO/NM state line, turns west and hugs the boundry fence for a while then drops down into arroyo that eventually runs under the track a Furgeson's Trestle. The trail works its way up the draw and crosses the track at the bottom of the Whiplash at MP 296. Russ and my Jeep stand on top of the cut while 487 crosses the small trestle in the lower Whiplash Curve.


The trail continued up the draw to Big Horn. It was neat to pace along side 487 as she worked along the hill above us. I understand this part of the trail washed out some time back and is closed off. The trail crosses the track at Big Horn, where 487 topped the hill and shuffled past.




Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/01/2017 01:31PM by Earl.