Re: 493 in the Los Pinos valley and a life changing decision

As 493 headed toward the Apache Crossing, I made my way from the Tanglefoot Curve viepoint back to Cumbres and drove toward Los Pinos. Extra 493 East had a good head start and was well beyond the Los Pinos siding and heading down the Los Pinos River valley toward Osier



Until seeing 493 disappear down the Los Pinos valley, the plan had been to drive to Durango for the night and to photograph 497 making the Farmington turn the next day, on Thursday, December 7. However, driving toward Chama, the excitement of chasing narrow gauge trains made way to a reality check. In early December the future seemed somewhat predictable. My girl friend Helen and I would soon be heading in opposite directions. Helen would receive her bachelor's degree in January, 1968, and move to Richland, Washington, where she would live with her ex-Room Mate Carolyn for a year and earn money to go to graduate school. I would be heading to Lackland Air Force Base in Texas and attend the Air Force Officers Training School. In 1967 the Vietnam War was in full swing and I was unlucky enough to have a low draft number. I did not want to be drafted into Army, but it seemed that military service was probably unavoidable. I figured that service in the Air Force was probably more survivable, besides, we had come to the USA courtesy of the Air Force in 1957. So in the fall of 1967 I took the grueling 4-hour OTS test and passed. I expected that soon after receiving my masters degree in Chemical Engineering in early November, and losing my student deferment, I would be called up by the Air Force, thus dodging
Army Service in Vietnam. But weeks went by without a call from the Air Force, which was great because I had more chances to see the narrow gauge on November 11-12 (476 and 493), November 21-22 (493) and the just posted December 5-6 (493 and 497). The down side was that I continued to be under threat by the Army draft. With the uncertainty of the Air Force plans, I decided I had to do something constructive. So as I approached the highway junction at the south end of Chama, I made the sudden decision to go straight toward Espanola instead of turning right toward Durango. The idea was to drive most of the night and to talk to my dad about looking for a job before he left for work at Holloman Air Force base in the morning. I got home about 3am, caught a couple of hours sleep and discussed job hunting. A chance for a draft deferred job seemed too much to hope for.

About 9 am, as 497 was likely steaming south out of Durango, I got a call from NMSU. A recruiter from Atlantic Richfield Company in Richland, Washington, was on campus to interview chemical engineers and no one had signed up with him. So he asked our Department Head, Dr. Thode, who he could talk to. Well, I wasn't doing anything, so why not call me in Alamogordo. Of course I jumped at the opportunity, drove to Las Cruces, did the interview, and filled out the paper work. As the recruiter had the afternoon free, he contacted all my references, got the answers back on Friday, made me an offer for a draft deferred engineering job on Monday, I accepted on Tuesday and started driving to Durango, en route to Richland, Washington, on Wednesday.

In the meantime the Weidman Mill in Durango had continued loading cars with lumber, as the narrow gauge was officially still in operation. On Monday, December 11, 473 and 497 were made ready for a run to Chama, but with snow falling, it was decided to wait. There was more waiting on Tuesday as snow continued to fall. Finally on Wednesday the Chama run was cancelled. I wandered around the Durango engine facilities on Wednesday night, seeing 473 and 497 under steam. On Thursday morning it was still snowing, and this was the scene in Durango as snow continued to fall.

473 was on the left, 497 in the middle, and cold 464 on the right









Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/23/2020 06:25PM by Olaf Rasmussen.