Dear Potential Participants -
Since John West first proposed - three threads ago, IIRC - a commemoration of last year's
single-day 'Springtime in the Rockies' excursion on the east end of the C&TS, his original
idea has morphed into a two-day Chama-Antonito-Chama round trip, with emphasis on both
historical accuracy and unique photo opportunities - the latter mostly taking advantage of
afternoon light and the less familiar parts of the line between Lava Tank and Osier - but also
taking into consideration the long days of June 30 - July 1 and the nearly full moon that will
rise an hour or two before sunset on those two days.
Assuming that the C&TS will approve John's request for an excursion that weekend, there are several things yet to be decided in order to attract enough participants for the charter to be viable. There are two main questions to be answered, and several sub-categories within each:
1) The basic consist of the train - should a helper be used, and - if so - are enough of us willing to help pay for it?
2) The era to be represented - 1940's, 1950's or 1960's - and is equipment available to accurately represent that era?
Taking question One first - Do we want a helper?
IMHO running a freight from Chama to Cumbres without a helper was so rare that it's not historically accurate to do so on Day One.* And if we want a mid-train helper from Antonito to Cumbres on Day Two, then the Chama-Cumbres helper will probably have to accompany us to Antonito on Day One - either light or (preferably) pulling a short chase train designed as much as possible to look like a work extra so that it too can participate in at least some of the run-bys, giving us two photo-ops for the price of one - sort of.
Whether or not there's a helper, do we motorcade from Chama to Cumbres and pick up the accomodation cars there - compromising the appearance of the train on Day One only east of the pass?
What will these various options cost?
And question Two - What era should be re-created?
IIRC, no charters have ever been run on the C&TS depicting D&RGW operations prior to 1940 - with the old-style tender lettering - nor in 1940 itself, the year of transition between the old and new styles. SFAIK, the GRAMPS tank cars were in use by then - and reefers still being used - but there would not yet be any pipe gons & idler flats in the trains.
By the mid-fifties - the peak of the oil and gas boom in Farmington - loaded pipe gons & idler flats, boxcars of drilling supplies and empty tank cars would be moving west, and long trains of empties moving east along with loaded tank cars of oil, seasonal livestock movements, and occasional boxcars and flatcars of lumber from Durango and Chama, respectively.**
The Oriental Refinery closed in September, 1964, so trains after that date would not include tank cars. The last heavy livestock shipments occurred in October, 1966, so stock cars - other than empties headed east for scrapping - would not be appropriate for replicating a late-sixties train. If #487 is used in a mid- or late-sixties train, during which years did she have the wrong slant on the flying Rio Grande on the engineer's side of her tender?***
- Russ
* The only photos I've found of a single-engine freight heading east from Chama to Cumbres, seven flatcars of lumber, were taken by Ernie Robart in November, 1967 - long after the peak years of traffic over the pass.
** Bob Richardson photographed a three-engine freight in 1950 that included nine long refrigerator cars - but it's not clear whether these were still in use at that time or were headed to Alamosa for scrapping.
*** Per an Ernie Robart photo taken in Chama on July 25, 1967, engine #4
97 also had a backward slanting
Rio Grande on the engineer's side of her tender - at least for a while.
Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 08/04/2011 11:33AM by Russo Loco.
