Visited, briefly, Antonito and Chama on the way back home to Phoenix from the East Coast. I thought that the Friends have made impressive progress at both sites, especially Antonito. When I worked back in 2003 Antonito was not a desirable assignment; that looks to have changed somewhat with the new railroad facilities. Lots of neat stuff going on there. Chama, too, has good things going on. I lucked out seeing the Goose at Cumbres just as it left to return to Chama, and then later when the train came in pulled by 487 (488?). 315 was dead in the yard. The other K-36 was under steam but not being used. "455" came in later. I didn't have time to ride but felt lucky to have seen so much. The Friends work on the various cars was clearly visible and equally impressive, especially the work on the coaling tower and sander.
Lotsa For Sale signs in Chama.
What surprised and disappointed me was the overall poor condition of the facilities; junk laying around the shop, trash and crap in the "swamp" (the same overturned standard gauge hopper car is still there, parts of junked motor cars, a full open barrel of oil sitting outside waiting to overflow,wheelsets half buried in dirt, etc., etc.). Can't that stuff be organized, or picked up and scrapped? I've run a short 62 mile, 90 car unit coal train RR and know how incredibly hard it is to get anything done including fixing derailments, but it appeared to me that there were two hostlers sitting in the cab of 488 just chewing the fat and nothing else.
I'm probably being too critical; can someone enlighten me on why none of that gets cleaned up? Even a weed whacker would help.
BTW, I still love the place.
Cynically, Ned
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/27/2017 06:13PM by nedsn3.
