1973, Filling Trains (pics)

A basic eleven-car consist entering the Coxo grade crossing. The bus driver flags the crossing.


Near capacity 15 car train. Scenic bought red and yellow shirts for all employees except shop crew. Red for Chama departures, yellow for Antonito departures. Black ties also, I believe. You can see the red-shirted engineer on the road engine. The yellow fell out of favor as the Antonito townies started calling the bus drivers the bumblebees, something like that.


Four of Scenic's six new busses headed for Chama on LaManga Pass.


The lunch stop at Osier was rather primitive in the early days. The food, your choice of roast beef or Mexcian combination plate, was very good. It was served under the porch roof. Seating was at picnic tables visible beyond the section house. There was also limited indoor seating in the section house or you could go back on the train. One of my fondest memories of Osier was trying to eat at a picnic table in a wind so stiff it blew the food off of the plate. If you let go of the plate with either hand the wind would whip the plate right out of the other hand. That was a challenge.


We always did a photo runby at Big Horn, weather permitting. Even with the 30 car trains.

"Time spent with CATS is never wasted." -- Sigmund Freud

"Nothing endures but change." -- Heraclitus

"C'est le meilleur des mondes possibles." -- Candide