What about running #19 Cumbres to Osier?? (pics)

Hello all -

What is #19's capacity from Osier to Cumbres? I remember back in 1975 the C&TS was so busy
that #19 was hauling a short train from Cumbres to Sublette - or maybe Big Horn - to supplement
the regular Steam-powered trains. It would be a LOT easier to truck a couple of rider gons, two or
three cabooses, the concession/potty car and as many rider boxcars as are available (or as many
as #19 could pull along with the the cabeese, etc.) to Cumbres than to haul a K-36 up there.

#19 could then pull one Cumbres-Osier-Cumbres round trip in the morning and another in the afternoon.  Fueling would be a lot easier, and there would be no ashes to dump - just a honeywagon needed to empty the toilets.  I'm presuming that a picture is still worth 1000 words (or 10,000 of mine), so here's a photo of #19 with her train at Cumbres in late September, 1975:


There had been a cold, but not too windy storm a few days before, and it seemed that every deciduous tree in the Rocky Mountains turned gold the same week. Here's the same train at Sublette a few hours later:




Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/08/2010 05:14PM by Russo Loco.