Re: Current Chama Question

Earl or John Bush could give lots of guidance on this issue regarding Rotary Runs.
Kevin was right that the last one was 1997. They ran it in 1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, and 1997. I may be off on the 94 as it could have been 1996.
I know one year it ran and my brother was out there. By the time they actually ran, the snow was way down, and the photogs including my brother
headed to Windy point which was about all that needed plowing.

1991 they used 2 engines and did the job in two days.

1993 was a bad one, and they used 3 engines for the first time that I am aware of.

1994 I think this was the one with little snow but they ran anyway.

1995 A bad one. Something on the Rotary broke near Los Pinos Phone Booth(Was discussed here recently). My brother did that one.

1996 must have been the year they busted the line open with just an engine. I remember Earl telling me about that one, and how they were
concerned they might hit ice on Windy Point and put the whole mess down on the highway!!

1997 Last Rotary run. Was there for that one, and did a video, and have posted photos before.

1999 Was a Friends special I believe that was a flanger run or some such. They nearly flipped over the 484 at Los Pinos(near the tank) on that one....

I am not really sure how long before a run they make the call to run it. There is a bunch of prep work. Most importantly is the cost of doing the whole thing.

In 1993 when I was going to do a charter afterwards, Joe Vigil (GM at the time), told me it cost 10K per day, and they ran either 3 or 4 days that year. So imagine
what it would cost per day today!! There is a lot of labor involved, plus lots of coal and other under the radar expenses.

I feel lucky having seen 3, and my brother saw 2 I didn't see, so between us we have seen all of them in the 90's.

Greg