Hello All -
The
Rio Grande started off narrow gauge freight operations in 1968 by returning two of its Silverton Train K-28's – #476 and #478 – from Alamosa to Durango on May 28 — fifty years ago today; the engines had spent the winter of 1967-68 undergoing class 5 repairs. John West has nicknamed this short train of mostly drill pipe headed to Farmington 'The Mad Dash', since it skipped the usual overnight stop in Chama, running all the way through in one very long day; he has recently gathered his color photos taken that day into a gallery at [
chasingtrains.smugmug.com], well worth a visit. Another photographer following the train that day was Ernie Robart, who recently lent me several of his 35mm B&W negatives to scan,* so for a Memorial Day celebration of this 50th Anniversary of the first day of the last year of freight operations over Cumbres Pass I'll share a few of them here.
The two locomotives get a final inspection before leaving the engine yard
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Photo Copyright © 1968, 2018 by Ernest W. Robart - All Rights Reserved.
Apparently they had been fueled & watered before Ernie arrived, as he has no photos of them being serviced before they moved past the depot and their waiting train
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Photo Copyright © 1968, 2018 by Ernest W. Robart - All Rights Reserved.
After pumping up the air, the train departs around the curve at the west end of the yard and heads south toward Antonito
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Photo Copyright © 1968, 2018 by Ernest W. Robart - All Rights Reserved.
Photo Copyright © 1968, 2018 by Ernest W. Robart - All Rights Reserved.
Photo Copyright © 1968, 2018 by Ernest W. Robart - All Rights Reserved.
(To be continued.)
- El Abuelo Histœrico, Greengo y Curmudgeoño de los Locomoturas Viejos y Verdes,
aka Der Grossväterlich DünkelOlivGrünDampfKesselMantelLiebHabender
* "several" 35mm negatives = nearly 450
. . .
Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 12/26/2019 02:19PM by Russo Loco.