John has it right the previous coaling structure was a trestle arrangement. after the loaded cars were pushed up the steep trestle they were unloaded into bunkers (also known as pockets, hoppers, or bins) from there they were gravity loaded into the tenders. Pictures of this structure can be seen in Dorman's "Chama/Cumbres with a little chili" on pages 32,34,39 and 45. That structure was replaced by the current tipple.
The current tipple and sand house were built in essentially the same location as the previous coaling trestle.
With the current system the loaded coal cars were pushed up the earthen ramp and dumped into a pit called the "grizzly" from there it was dropped into skip buckets and raised by a gas powered winch to the coal pocket. From there a chute and clamshell door allowed it to be loaded into the tenders.
Car loads of "green" sand were also pushed up the ramp and shoveled into the "fort apache" like yard south of the sand house. The sand was then shoveled into a hopper built around and above a large coal burning stove. When the sand was dry it would fall out through the openings in the hopper and be shovelled through a screen into an area at the north edge of the sand house. From there it fell into a buried reservoir from which it was air blown into the tank on top of the sand tower. By putting the hose into the sand dome on the locomotive and opening a valve the clean dry sand was drained into the dome.
When I got to Chama (Oct 89 - May 96) both structures were out of service. We worked on both to put them back in operation and keep them serviceable. We used the tipple occasionally and kept some coal in it. That way in case the front end loader broke down we could still get a load of coal. Taking coal from the tipple was fast,dirty, and occasionally exciting. We used the sand drying and loading system on an every day basis.
Some of my fondest memories of the railroad are of tending the stove in the sand house on cold Chama nights and telling and hearing stories in its dim warm light. The ghosts of the old days were alive and well in the sand house and the tipple hoist house.
I am sorry to hear that that the sand tower is no longer being used. To my way of thinking the real history of the place is not just in the locomotives and trains but in the jobs that were done in support of moving people and freight. When I was there that is what I referred to as the "unselfconscious living history" that for me made the C&TS unique in all of tourist railroading. To paraphrase a line from the classic movie "Little Big Man" "For a boy it was a kind of a paradise I wasn't just playin trains I was livin trains."
John Bush
