Re: Arizona & New Mexico Ry steam

When I lived in Alamogordo, New Mexico, in the late 1950s and 1960s, I spent a lot of time researching Southern Pacific's Cloudcroft branch and the associated logging railroads in the Sacramento mountains. The branch was noted for attaining the highest elevation reached by Southern Pacific, and for it's 5 1/2 percent grades and switchbacks. In later years primary power were two 2-8-0s originally built for the Arizona & New Mexico Ry for service between Lordsburg and Clifton in 1902 and 1905. The engines were eventually purchased by the El Paso & Southwestern RR and later became SP engines.

Here are a two photos of SP 2511 in service on the Cloudcroft branch hauling log trains. The scenery on the lower section of the branch pretty much resembled that on the Lordsburg - Clifton line





Engine 2511 made the final scheduled run on the branch on September 12, 1947, seen here taking water at Wooten tank on the uphill climb



Returning from Cloudcroft after gathering up the last freight cars, engine 2511 is seen on the S-trestle below Cloudcroft, with the crew posing for final photos