C&TS - 42 Years Ago. July, 1976

I recently found the box of slides taken on one of our massive Narrow Gauge Vacations my Dad, younger brother and I took in the 1970's. This one took us on a great circle route from Phoenix to Chama, to Alamosa, up the Front Range to Denver, to the CRM, the Loop and back through South Park to Gunnison. Then on to Durango and back home. Nearly 2 weeks of hard core railfanning.

Day one was the drive to Chama from Phoenix. At this time the C&TS ran 4 days a week, making two round trips on Tuesday/Wednesday and Saturday/Sunday. The plan was to chase the train over the hill on Tues. July 20, 1976 and ride the train back on Wednesday the 21th. On Thursday we would be off to Denver.

We arrived in Chama late in the afternoon of July 19. After stashing our bags at the Chama Station Inn, across the road from the yard. We grabbed the cameras and headed down to the yard to see what was up.


484 was sitting quietly simmering to herself on the Ready Track. 484 had been out of service for a few years due to running gear troubles. The C&TS was pretty low-budget and struggling operation then. In addition to worn out rod bushings, 484 had several out-of-round crankpins. One of the brilliant minds in Chama invented a crankpin truing device that attached to the end of the pin and held a large die-grinder (industrial-strength Dremel Tool) The die grinder would rotate around the pin and true up the pin. Years later I saw this gizmo in the shop, but never saw it in use. Anyway, 484 got new brasses, new paint and went back to work. In the spring of '76 Enrie Robart came up to repaint and letter 484. In sanding down the tender, he discovered the original Baldwin paint and lettering. Baldwin lettered the 480's with standard gauge - sized lettering on the tender and bigger numbers on the cab than was standard to the D&RGW in 1925. So, the old BLW font was applied and stayed as the standard for many years. The factory paint did not include a herald on the tender. Scenic Rys had come up with the new "state flag-Toltec Gorge route" logo for the property. These we applied to the buildings, cars and to 484's tank as seen here. 484 was fitted out the number boards from 489, which at that time was simply a source of parts.

Over at the roundhouse, 483 was getting fired up to use as helper the next day. Back then, this was THE SHOP. The only inspection pit was in the old roundhouse. No concrete floor, no overhead crane, very minimal machine shop.


The two guys standing next to 483 appear to be Bernie Watts (in front) with Dave Rusconi behind him. 483 was getting pretty tired by now, and was primarily used as helper. she would run the rest of 1976 and be retired midway through the 1977 season.


After 483 got steam up, she was rolled back into the house for the night. In addition to Dave, it looks like John Oldberg (with his back to the camera) and Doug Stamps (on the far right) have showed up.


487 was out of service for some minor running repairs. From the lack of eccentric crank and rod, plus the jack under the front of the main rod indicate they were working on dropping the main rod. 487 still has its earlier lettering style with smaller font and the words "and" and "railroad" fully spelled out.


The place looks kinda empty compared to nowadays. In the background you can see the sign of the Jones Merchantile-Western Auto building that burned down in the mid-1980's.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/17/2018 10:31AM by Earl.