Re: Ballast vs Weeds, Today vs Yesterday, etc.
| November 23, 2012 01:35PM |
|
Tom Gildersleeve Wrote:
===================================
> ... one thing I have to ask, however, is when did
> they upgrade the railroad to mainline standards?
> The well ballasted line reminds me of a Class 1
> railroad, not the narrow gauge I knew when the
> Rio Grande operated it.
Hi, Tom -
A few years ago I remember a fan yelling at Alan Loomis for staging a run-by where clumps of brush hid #315's drivers part of the time; other fans - like you and me - have fond memories of the Rio Grande we knew in the mid- and late sixties with it's wobbly track and weed-grown right-of-way.* But like you and others have pointed out elsewhere, the "good old days" are long gone, and we seem to be getting better and better (and more artsy-fartsy?) photos of scenes that are less and less related to the reality of the slowly deteriorating freight-hauling railroad of our youth. OTOH, some of the scenes we recorded back then - and even in the early years of the C&TS - are simply impossible today due to brush encroaching on the right-of-way (see [ngdiscussion.net]), and especially the growth of trees such as in the areas west of Sublette (see first photo on [ngdiscussion.net]) and just below Cresco tank --
October 22, 1972:
October 23, 2012:
It's just one of those trade-offs that have to be made so that maybe - someday while we three ur-Curmudgeons are still around to enjoy it - a Cumbres Turn similar to the one you photographed in March, 1963 can be re-created. (This one - with the anti-Greeley telegraphone pole that migrated east instead of west):
Copyright © 1963, 2005 By Tom Gildersleeve - ALL Rights Reserved.
- Rüsso
* See note at bottom of [ngdiscussion.net], and then JBWX' comments at [ngdiscussion.net]
===================================
> ... one thing I have to ask, however, is when did
> they upgrade the railroad to mainline standards?
> The well ballasted line reminds me of a Class 1
> railroad, not the narrow gauge I knew when the
> Rio Grande operated it.
Hi, Tom -
A few years ago I remember a fan yelling at Alan Loomis for staging a run-by where clumps of brush hid #315's drivers part of the time; other fans - like you and me - have fond memories of the Rio Grande we knew in the mid- and late sixties with it's wobbly track and weed-grown right-of-way.* But like you and others have pointed out elsewhere, the "good old days" are long gone, and we seem to be getting better and better (and more artsy-fartsy?) photos of scenes that are less and less related to the reality of the slowly deteriorating freight-hauling railroad of our youth. OTOH, some of the scenes we recorded back then - and even in the early years of the C&TS - are simply impossible today due to brush encroaching on the right-of-way (see [ngdiscussion.net]), and especially the growth of trees such as in the areas west of Sublette (see first photo on [ngdiscussion.net]) and just below Cresco tank --
October 22, 1972:
October 23, 2012:
It's just one of those trade-offs that have to be made so that maybe - someday while we three ur-Curmudgeons are still around to enjoy it - a Cumbres Turn similar to the one you photographed in March, 1963 can be re-created. (This one - with the anti-Greeley telegraphone pole that migrated east instead of west):
Copyright © 1963, 2005 By Tom Gildersleeve - ALL Rights Reserved.
- Rüsso
* See note at bottom of [ngdiscussion.net], and then JBWX' comments at [ngdiscussion.net]
Sorry, only registered users may post in this forum.
488 stops for water at Los Pinos tank on closing day Oct. 1979. Photo courtesy Don Richter
The NGDF was started by Don Richter and is currently operated in his memory by Nathan Holmes and others. Others who have contributed to the upkeep of this board are (in no particular order): Charles McCandless, Everett Lueck, Ted Wilton, Cole Adams, James Bane, John Moellmer, Jon Bentz, Linn Moedinger, lloyd lehrer, Rod Jensen, John Craft, Steven Forney, Herb Kelsey, Bill Ramaley, Russ Sperry (El Russo Loco), Josh McNeal, John West, Jim Armstrong, Bob Bergstrom, Greg Scholl, Blake Forbes Doug van Veelen and Mark Fuller.