Re: NNG: ... And Who have I been?

Fellow Fans and Foamers -

I have recently been accused on another site of being a "Wild Eyed Foamer", and while it's true that I
currently live in California, I wasn't born there. Actually, I'm a FoamITE, not a Foamer - a Far Out And
Mechanically Inept Train Enthusiast - who has spent a majority of his life trying to compensate for a
lack of machine-tool aptitude by using PhotoShop to correct his numerous social and image-capture
inadequacies.

I attended Colorado College in the early sixties, where Ed's dad, "Doc" Stabler, was a very popular professor. I also helped A LITTLE with the restoration of the C&TS in September, 1970, and lived in Telluride in the early seventies, so I'm not exactly a Johnny-Come-Lately out-of-state carpetbagger* riding into Antonito on the noon train trying to take over the 40th Anniversary Celebration of the First C&TS Train into Chama (which celebration I have been pushing for on this forum for only about about five years now - please see [ngdiscussion.net], and ignore my ten-year math error - 30 years instead of 40, since 1970).   Roger Hogan and Alan Loomis ASKED ME to HELP with plans for the celebration because I was there - ON CUMBRES PASS, IN 'THE NARROWS' and AT THE HIGHWAY 17 GRADE CROSSING OUTSIDE CHAMA - on September 6, 1970, and because I feel very strongly that those who helped in 1970 - FAR MORE THAN I DID to rescue and resuscitate the Narrow Gauge Over Cumbres - deserve to be recognized, and thanked for their efforts.

It's not easy for me to 'Toot my own Horn', but a certain person who CLAIMS to have the best interests of the railroad in mind - and whose actions speak MUCH louder than his words - has implied on another site that my recent attempts to help make 2010 a really special season for the C&TS are misguided, and I feel it necessary to post the following unadulterated scan of a GGRM newsletter to demonstrate that I've been doing what I'm trying to do again for a VERY long time:


Contrary to the opinions of the nay-sayers, the C&TS is alive and well, and 2010 is going to be a VERY fine year!!

Thank you for your support!

- Russ

* I first rode over Cumbres Pass on a three-day special in 1960, and was lucky enough to repeat the journey in 1962, '64 and '66.   I worked on track and on trains in 1970, and - since my retirement a couple of years ago - like Jimmy and Jerry and Rich have been sharing my photos and memories in hopes of increasing everyone's appreciation of the priceless historical treasure which we have in the C&TS.

Is someone in Chama - not California - a REAL carpetbagger, motivated primarily by his own ego or financial self-interest?   Perhaps only the Phantom of the Roundhouse really knows ...



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/24/2010 10:02AM by Russo Loco.