I had to find some Rio Grande Zephyr footage I shot on the 1981 trip, and the first material on that transfer tape was C&TS footage, and later some D&S. Here are some observations I noted.
On The Cumbres and Toltec...Late june-early July 1981
(1) 488 and 487 were the main engines
(2) 488 had a pilot plow
(3) 487 had no pilot plow
(4) 489 was being tested after its rebuild. We shot it on the wye being turned to head up the hill.
(5) 489's tender was loaded on the east side of the yard, with a loader, and a ramp between the roundhouse and the ash pit.
(6) Also got a shot of 488 getting sand from the sand house.
(7)Older guy engineer with gray hair, tall and lean.
(8)Logos on the tenders of the engines. All box car coaches of course.
(9)Nice whistle echo leaving the narrows.
(10)Most of the shots were the same old tired locaitons, except for Jukes Tree,Cresco and another hike-in we did after Coxo curve.
(11)Cresco tank looked pretty sad, and no sign of
Rio Grande left...it had faded out since 1971-76.
(12) Got a shot at Coxo on the uphill side of the curve, and got nice smoke from 488 for my efforts. Shot speeder 09 which later was following.
(13) Could hear the narrator from the speaker on the rider gon at the end of the train
(14)I should have used the tripod more!!!
Durango and Silverton.
(1) Enjoyed the mellow sounds of the whistles on 476 and 478.
(2) Engines had regular straight stacks with only a cinder catcher on top like the C&TS uses.
(3) We were there on July 4th and the doubleheader was 476 leading road engine 473 with flags on 476, and some bunting along the side of several cars near the rear of the train.
(4) Heard both 476 and 473 call our signals approaching Rockwood, so we got all three K28's whistling and in operation.
(5) While staying at Ah Wilderness ranch we hiked to the high bridge one day. Engines were split before the bridge, and helper went ahead. Each engine blew down the boiler on the bridge.
(6) Sound from my super 8 camera was weak but beat nothing I guess in my first sound movie trip to NG land. On the next trip, 1985 I had video gear with far better audio.
It is amazing to look back at 25 years ago in this manner.
I was thinking of this board with all the talk of whistles and other topics as I watched these films on video. I think whistles are a topic I would like to learn more about and put sounds and pictures together to better understand whistle types.
Greg
