As Earl eluded to below in one of Rogers Rotary thread some idiot from Ohio thought it would be a good idea to do a photo special in the winter, after the Rotary plowed. Having done the John Craft spectacular charters of October 1992, the thinking was it would be neat to do something in winter, with snow, shortly after the Rotary cleared the line. Earl and I discussed the ideas, pricing and other things for the weekend charter. I figured a bunch of photographers would be going anyway for the Rotary run, so what better time to provide a couple of extra days action with steam in the snow blasting up to Cumbers and beyond.
There was much snow in 1993 and the Rotary slogged it out for 3 days I believe(Earl can provide definite numbers, etc). The ground around the Orgasm Point was soggy due to poor drainage, and the Rotary actually derailed returning to Chama. Thus the higher ups determined they didn't want to run an excursion with people over that piece of railroad. This essentially scrapped all the basic plans we had, and we were limited to about 8 miles of RR, plus the trackage west of town. We could have cancelled but felt everyone was already there, and hated to have the RR refund us all that money, so we opted to continue and make the best of it, but did offer a refund to anyone who purchased the one-way to Antonito for day 2. I think 3 wanted refunds.
(The intended Plan) Day 1 was to be a pair of hill turns from Chama to Cumbres, one with a rear pusher and one with a mid-train helper. This was going to be the most expensive day, and we had paid to have the 0503 painted and relettered Rio Grande, which I believe was the first time since the 60's. Day 2 was to be a one-way trip over the railroad to Antonito. This was advertised as a single engine train, or maybe with a helper to Cumbres I don't remember off hand.
Unbeknownst to the patrons, we had some secret special stuff planned on that second day. We had made a plan to send one of the engines to Antonito on the first day, and another was already there. Our train to Antonito would meet an unadvertised 2 engine freight westbound from Antonito at Sublette as I recall. This would be a total surprise. After doing some runways at Sublette with both trains, there would be an option for patrons to continue on to Antonito as intended, or to ride and photograph the unexpected 2 engine freight back to Chama in the afternoon. It was a grandiose deal. As I think of it now, I believe one of the engines used would be the helper off the train to Cumbres, which ran light to Big Horn, turned and provided the second engine from the freight from Antonito. As mentioned above none of that could happen due to the closure of most of the RR.
What Did Happen: The railroad bent over backwards for us and provided a 3 engine for us, and we could use it both days if we wanted to. So we had 497, 487, and 488. These were all lettered Rio Grande due to them operating at the end of 1992 for the Craft Charters. I believe 484 was out of service, and had been used on the Craft charter, so rather than paint 488's tender, they swapped and we used 484's. This was odd if you looked at the back of 488 of course!!!
Day 1: Two engine train, became a three engine train with 487 and 488 on the point and 497 as rear pusher. There were some neat shots in the yard, and up to Lake Lobato. We were then positioned on the side of the hill below Lobo Lodge(Off limits today), and heard a bang as the 497 and the end of the train crossed the Lobato Trestle. I think it was a cylinder ring or packing(Memory vague). They said they would have to take it off in the siding and return to Chama. I had created a Corporation for this venture called "Visions Of Steam" using a well known "Friends" attorney to set it up in New Mexico. I had name tags for everyone, and when 497 went down, I told one patron I had to change the name to "Snake-bit Enterprises", and had to work the crowd a bit. So day one continued with 487 and 488 double heading as far as the track would allow. We covered some locations that normally you would skip on a longer trip.
We did a second run up the hill in the afternoon, with different lighting, and spots like the west side of Lobato Trestle were nice.
Day 2: We started the morning by doing a mid-train helper separated by 5 freight cars for Lobato trestle. We got some snow at Lobato, and it was coming down hard. In the afternoon Earl suggested we try something different. About 25-40% of the patrons blew-off this last trip but it turned out to be interesting. We left 487 pointed west, and sent it up to Dalton backwards. We ran our train with one engine (488) and it stalled where the 4% grade starts near Lake Lobato. We were shooting late afternoon sun, on the other side of the lake which was different. Earls plan was to have 487 meet our train at Lobato Siding, as if it were a helper coming down the hill from Cumbres. So we shot the meet, and to make it more interesting, we swapped engines and the caboose. We were now pointed west with 487, which had to do switching to get the rider car and caboose on the east end. All this was done at the west switch of Lobato, where a nice reflecting pool was right there on the west side of the switch. Numbers passes were made here, during switching and actual runbys. We did a couple more, then went to Chama for yard shots, and one last one at the highway crossing west of town as if the train were headed to Gato in late afternoon sun, using John Cokers old pick-up.
We learned the pitfalls of trying to tie-in a charter with a snow clearing op in the spring. Part of reason they did those snow clearing runs was to allow time for track guys to get in there and take care of bad areas. Many guys told me later they got some great shows, like the reflections, and mid-train helpers, and other "Different" spots. Anyway it was done and nobody got hurt. Both Visions of Steam, and "Snake Bit Enterprises" vanished into eternity!
Greg
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www.gregschollvideo.com]
