There were a couple of peaks and valleys to the pipe boom. The biggest was in late 1951 - early 1953. Followed by another surge in 1957. During these times daily trains west from Alamosa were common. If crews and locomotives were available, and the transfer crew could make it happen, there would occasionally be 2 trains west from Alamosa.

Undoubtedly the craziest time was spring of 1952, when trains ran west daily, an endless parade of Cumbres Turns got empties up the hill out of Chama, doubleheaded trains ran daily in each direction between Chama and Durango, and the Farmington Branch was a daily train. There were 5 engines between Chama and Farmington (2 going west, 2 going east, and one to Farmington)
There were at least 5 between Alamosa and Chama (2 going west and at least 3 doing hill turns and running east).

The challenge was there were only 11 large engines in service between ALA and Farmngton: 488, and the 10 490's. 484 was in the Alamosa shop under overhaul, the rest of the 480's were sitting up in Salida or Gunnison. 473 was out of service after getting dunked into the Animas River in August 1951. 476 and 478 were on daily work trains on the snowbound Silverton Branch. 453 was the Durango switch engine, 463 and 464 were in Durango but not being used for much. When 476 derailed coming back from plowing. the Silverton Branch, 464 was used in its place.

By 1957, all the engines from up north were in Alamosa, making life much easier.