484,488,492 and 498 on heavy freight turn, June 1966

With late spring, early summer having come around again, I thought I would post some recollections from May/June, 1966, a mere 53 years ago (not so long by geological standards).
In May 1966 I was poised to head to the West Texas oil patch for the third summer. I had accepted an offer by Humble Oil Company in Midland, Texas, and I had taken the company physical, although my enthusiasm for heading east for the summer again was at a very low level. Then came an unexpected offer from Climax Molybdenum to work in the Climax mill near Leadville. With an opportunity to head to Colorado, I wrote Humble Oil an apologetic letter and I was off to a fabulous summer in the mountains and in narrow gauge country. Before reporting to the huge mine and mill complex in Climax, I decided to spend a week on the narrow gauge that had only recently resumed operation after the winter shutdown.

On Memorial Day weekend I rode the Rocky Mountain RR Club annual 3-day roundtrip from Alamosa to Silverton, the last one as it turned out, seen here at Gato on May 30 1966 with 483 leading.



The next day, May 31, 473 took the empty passenger stock from Alamosa back to Durango, and I chased the train as far as Dulce, seen here between Azotea and Monero.



The next 3 days I chased the heavy freight operations that started in Alamosa on June 1.

Here 488 and 498 are getting a roll on their train out of Alamosa



The train stopped in La Jara for water, and I made a happy connection with two other railfans who were also chasing the freight.



The other railfans were John Charles and Steve Patterson, seen at left, who were chasing together in John's Bronco, and we ended up combining forces for the next three days.