John West Wrote:
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> I noticed this Drew Jacksich photo on Railpix.
> I cannot remember off the top of my head any
> other pix of engines actually taking coal at Mon-
> ero.  I remember Earl's story about one train
> toward the end that tried to – and got a dead
> cat out the chute, or some such.

drgwk37 Wrote:
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> John it was normal operating practice for locos
> to coal up at Monero, that is why the coal chute
> was there.  Neat shot, a lot of times the locos
> would uncouple from their train to take on coal.


It's likely that during the last few years, when trains usually left Durango in the morning, they wouldn't get to Monero until after dark — especially if they encountered any difficulties at all along the way.  The next-to-last revenue freight to depart Durango eastbound, on July 17, 1968, had so many problems en route to Monero that it didn't arrive there until mid-morning on the 18th, which enabled Ernie Robart to get some excellent shots of the train passing through "town" in good light.  See my post at [ngdiscussion.net], which includes a photo of locomotive #498 taking on some coal . . .

- Roosso



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/10/2018 08:36PM by Russo Loco.