Albuquerque Free Press C&TSRR Article
By Bill Hume
CHAMA – Our little train has gone big time – world class. Of course, aficionados of the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad (like your reporter) have considered it to be such for decades. But now it’s official – nationally.
USA Today, in a nationwide poll of readers, named the Cumbres & Toltec as the best train ride in the entire country. The Durango & Silverton line, long our regional competition, came in second.
This was no southwest-only poll, no excursion line-only poll.C&TSRR won out over well known excursion trains in California, Alaska and in the eastern states, as well as the best-known Amtrak long haul passenger lines.
This writer and a group of friends rode the 64 miles from Antonito, Colo. to Chama on a recent Saturday a day after a day of significant precipitation. Everything was green, blooming – and a myriad of little rivulets and waterfalls conveyed the last of the rainy spell down toward the Rio de los Pinos – 800 feet below in Toltec Gorge.
The track was in superb shape, with the fresh ballast (gravel under the tracks) and numerous stacks of old crossties bearing testimony to first-class maintenance.
“They (the C&TSR Commission) have continued what Frank (Turner, retired railroad executive and chairman of former operator C&TSR Management Co. board of directors) started with John Matthews (track maintenance expert) back in 2000,” said Tim Tennant, executive director of Friends of the C&TSR, longtime stalwart nonprofit support arm of the railroad).
The track isn’t the only thing standing tall this year. The cars were clean and the service impeccable. The trains were well-filled. The yards in Chama and Antonito were orderly and laid out for visitor viewing and enjoyment.
“It (the track and equipment) is the best condition it’s ever been in,” said New Mexico C&TSR Commissioner Billy Elbrock of Chama.
The line owned by the two states has chalked up another significant accomplishment in recent years: It is generating an operating profit.
“Our net operating income has been in the positive for three years,” said John Bush, president and general manager. “Ridership so far this year is up about 5 ½ percent over last year.”
I was on the board of directors of the line’s nonprofit operating company, C&TSR Management Co., 2000-11. We carried out an ambitious program for rehabilitating the track and equipment and were poised to build ridership and income – then the disastrous 2010 Lobato Trestle fire isolated Chama from the rest of the line. Our task switched from confident building for the future to a struggle for survival as we scrounged for the funds to repair the trestle and for riders willing to ride a bus up the hill to board the train. We repaired the trestle, upgraded the track, and at the end, passed on a rail line in pretty good repair, but mired in a deep financial hole.
The Durango-Silverton Railroad Co. stepped in – but bailed out in less than a year. The Cumbres and Toltec Railroad Commission – two members each from Colorado and New Mexico – decided to run the railroad directly. And judging by the condition of the track and equipment – and the significant growth in riders and income, they have enjoyed extraordinary success. I would like to think we (The C&TS Management Co.) contributed to their success by the solid base we left them – but the credit for today’s level of operational and financial success – plus the glowing national and international reputation currently enjoyed is solely the work of this Commission.
The Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad ranks as a must-see experience alongside the most significant historic landmarks and natural wonders of New Mexico. It preserves and showcases the steam locomotive transportation technology that supplanted the Santa Fe Trail, which supplanted the Spanish Colonial Camino Real de Tierra Adentro as New Mexico’s link to the outside world.
Where so much of the experiencing of history is looking in glass cases or through preserved buildings or ruins, this piece of history is alive. The experience of riding it is much as it was for passengers in the 1880s when it first pushed into the San Juan Mountains, and much as it was on the standard-gauge Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad that passed through and transformed the center of the state in much the same time frame.
It’s ours to treasure and enjoy, thanks to the work and dedication of innumerable advocates over the years, the current C&TSR Commission, its staff and the generations of railroad men of the mountain border communities.
