Riding narrow gauge freights in the 1960s wasn't perceived as being particularly dangerous, and the crews paid little attention to stowaways. Had a really wonderful trip on a bulkhead flat car from Antonito to Chama a year earlier, but I failed to consider that freights made lengthy stops in Antonito westbound, but ran thru nonstop on the return to Alamosa, meaning that a rider would end up getting off 28 miles from their car parked in Antonito. In my case I was rescued from this predicament by the friendly crew of helper 483, fireman Stanley Smith and engineer Ken Faucette. They offered me a ride in the tender dog house leaving Cumbres, then the cab after we were out of sight of the highway. Interestingly, we had to stop 15 minutes just short of the Big Horn buzzer to let the proper running time from Cumbres to Big Horn elapse, so that the Alamosa dispatcher would not be wise to our actual rate of progress.
I am attaching a photo of an equally adventurous but probably safer trip on a trailer flat car in 1968, riding 418 miles from Othello, Washington to Deerlodge, Montana on the Milwaukee's XL Special fast freight. This involved many tunnels, including the more than 2 miles long St. Paul Pass tunnel in the Bitterroot Mountains. But of course this was on the standard gauge. Riders were, right to left, my girlfriend Helen (later wife), Helen's friend Carolyn, Carolyn's room mate Mary, and my house mate Paul (Paul and Mary met on this trip and married 6 months later), and me, the picture taker. The next day we returned in a more civilized manner from Deerlodge to Pasco on Northern Pacific train No 1, the Mainstreeter, with Helen and me spending much of the day by the open Dutch Door (as seen below cruising along the Clark Fork river in Montana). I may relate some of the events of this trip some day, but it doesn't really involve the narrow gauge, However it does involve a friendlier and more easy style of railroading that is hard to find these days.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/05/2019 09:05PM by Olaf Rasmussen.