Today I was helping a friend move his parents stuff and in a desk drawer was this kind of diary of his last trip on the narrow gauge.
Also, it had the flyer promoting the " Journey of a Lifetime"
Ticket price for the three day event was kinda steep...$23.00
It is a little long but good reading.
Fall 1966
This year I was fortunate enough to be able to take the Kolar Karavan on the D&RGW narrow gauge, Sept.30, Oct.1 and 2. This was the first time I have been on the fall trip but have taken the spring trip several times.
I arrived in Alamosa the afternoon before the trip and did some visiting around the yards. I found the following steam engines at Alamosa. 473 484 487 488 498 were at the roundhouse and were under steam or could be put under steam.
Outside at the site of the burned portion of the roundhouse were 482 486 489 491 494 495, these engines were bunched in a group without their tenders. 497 was suspended in the shop without running gear.
The coaches for the excursion were spotted in front and near the old Depot. There were nine passenger cars, one baggage car used as a snackcar and one rebuilt mill end gondola, equipped with two rows of seats running lengthwise with an aisle the total length of the car.
The gondola was also fitted with a top.
As you already know the D&RGW has, in order to take care of the growing demand, built about eight new coaches. These new coaches are all steel but are modeled after the older coaches. The only way I could tell was by close inspection or by rapping on the sides to test for steel or wood.The interiors are somewhat different but I must say the people who built these new coaches certanily did a fine job.
The trip started right on the advertised. The first stop for water was La Jara. As I recall the usual first water stop was Antonito but I have reason to believe the water tower there was not usable. We arrived in Antonito at 9:15 and picked up a few people.
In the past few months there has been considerable discussion in railroad news letters concerning the third rail in this area. As I recall the original information states that the third (NG) rail was to be removed from most of the sidings between Alamosa and Antonito, and that is exactly what has been done. Almost all the narrow gauge third railhas been removed from the sidings between Alamosa and Antonito. However, in someplaces a few remain. It was noticed that some sidings have been removed between Antonito and Durango.
The train ran about normal speed all the way to the Big Horn curves.
When we passed that area I noticed the old section house that the tracks looped by three times is no longer there. It looks like it might have burned.
Shortly after Big Horn the train slowed to about ten miles an hour and this was about the speed all the way into Chama,NM.
Between Big Horn and Chama I noticed hundreds of new ties thrown out along the right of way. I also noticed that some of the places where snow had piled up had been bulldozed out.
I did not talk to anyone officially about what is going on this section, and I did not even hear any good rumors. But, there was several carloads of brand new NG ties in the Alamosa yards.
At Chama the engine 487 was uncoupled for srevice.
The roundhouse at Chama has been reduced to three stalls and its total occupancy seemed to be a section speeder. There was a rotary snowplow in the yard with its cars but not one engine.
We departed Chama at 2:50 PM which is much later than usual. Our arrival in Durango was after 9:00PM which made the trip exceed 13 hours.
On board were 68 people who came by buses from Chicago and I heard there was another bus load from California. I talked with people from several states including Alabama, Texas, and both the east and west coasts.
I for one certainly enjoyed the night ride. The gondola was abandoned by most people when darkness came, They perferred the kerosen lamp light of the coaches. Since it wouldn't be too long after sunset until the moonrise I decided this might be a nice time to ride the gondola, and it was. The engine headlight made a piercing finger in the darkness ahead winding left and right and sometimes almost at a right angle to the gondola on the horseshoe curves.
Once again I enjoyed watching the reflection of the smoke colum as the fireman stoked. Some youg folks near me were trying to figure out what that funny light up front was and they seemed to enjoy the explanation of the firebox reflection.
The second day was a trip to Silverton and return. This was the next to last day of the tourist run. The tourist train departed for Silverton first. It consisted of engine 476, eight cars, including the old combine, and two of the new roofed over gondolas. This train seemed to be filled over half capicity.
our train followed about a half an hour later with the same consist as the first day but powered by engine 478. We followed the tourist timetable rreal close and retured to Durango before dark. Our trip put the number of passengers carried to Silverton over the 76,000 mark for the season.
Sunday morning was cold and dark but several of us were up roaming the roundhouse and yards before departure. The engines I saw at Durango were 476 478 483 with steam up, 493 cold in the roundhouse, 487 ( our engine coming over) 464 dead in the yard with several parts missing. There was also a diesel switcher number 50.
