Re: Last "freight" to Durango - foggy memories.

Josh McNeal Wrote:
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> I was looking through the posts that Russ posted
> about the last "freight" to Durango in Dec 1968. I
> am fairly familiar with the run, but does anyone
> know why there were 3 cabooses on the train?

Volvoguy87 Wrote:
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> In hindsight, we all know when the last runs were,
> we know the railroad wanted to abandon those
> lines, but was it definitively known in 1968 that
> those were going to be the last runs?


Sadly, Ernie Robart is no longer here to answer questions like this -

Q 1.   I no longer have access to Ernies copious notes, but I'll take a stab at remembering what he told me.  There were two engines on the train from Alamosa to Cumbres – recently shopped K-28 #473 as road engine, and "old reliable" #483 as helper.  As near as can be determined from Ernie's late-evening photos, #483 ran ahead light from Cumbres to Chama, and #473 brought the "hospital" train – which included locomotive #481 dead-in-train and a few carloads of parts and tools – down the hill, arriving well after dark.  The train crew and both engine crews spent the night of December 5 in Chama.  An engine crew and a train crew from Durango arrived in a company van the next morning, and took #473 from Chama on west with one caboose.  #483 returned to Alamosa with two cabeese in order to provide room for both one of the engine crews and also the train crew from the previous day.  I presume this was to avoid the expense and bother of sending a company van to Chama (via Wolf Creek Pass and Pagosa Springs) to bring everyone other than #483's crew home to Alamosa.  I'm pretty sure that Earl and others have identified most of the various crew members involved, but my memory for names is even foggier than it used to be . . .

Q 2.   As noted elsewhere, I was visiting some railfan friends in Denver in late August, and called the dispatcher on Tuesday, 08/27/68, to see if there would be any trains running between Alamosa and Durango that week.  "Yep," said the dispatcher. "Tomorrow.  Better get your ass down there, 'cause it's the last one.   CLICK. "  IIRC, permission to abandon the line wasn't granted until mid-summer 1969, but the D&RGW had definitely decided to quit running trains in 1968.  I have heard a RUMOR that a train was put together to haul one last large load of oilfield supplies to Farmington after the snow melted in the Spring of '69, but Denver called Alamosa and told them to re-load everything onto Rio Grande MotorWays trucks . . .

Sic Transit Gloria Mundi.

- El Abuelo Histœrico, Greengo y Curmudgeoño de los Locomoturas Viejos y Verdes,
aka Der Grossväterlich DünkelOlivGrünDampfKesselMantelLiebHabender



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 10/08/2019 09:24PM by Russo Loco.