John West Wrote:
=======================================================
> Just to beat this horse a bit more, based on
> Earl's detailed chronicle of the last couple of
> years of freights, about a week later (June 4-5-6)
> a fairly heavy train ran west from Alamosa to
> Durango.
The dates we were there were
June 3rd-First train of year to Dgo-Farmington and back-Eng 478
June 4th-We chased 498 to Gato with empties from Farmington
June 4th-483 and 493 took a train from Alamosa to Chama
June 5th-498 took that train to Durango, 483-493 we chased to Alamosa
So yes the 498 would have taken that train to Durango. Seems that Earl
told me that they used a helper into DGO with 478 later that day. We
got one shot of it leaving Chama before chasing up the hill EB.
A further note....My dad tried to stay around for the next westbound,
and kept calling Alamosa. We killed time going to Belen, El Paso, etc.
The D&RGW kept saying "the next day or two", and finally he gave up and we headed for home. It ran a day or two later according to the notes
of others. I think that train was one Ernie shot and is in our Last Steam Freights 1968.
Just found the notes.
The next run was the 13th 483-93 to Chama, 498 to Chama from Dgo
14th 483-93 to Alamosa, 498 Chama-Dgo, 478 helper Gato-Dgo.
15th 498 to Farmington and back.
Another series of trips was not to take place until July 15th!!!
That train reportedly had 44 cars into
> Durango of which 43 looked to be headed for
> Farmington, and one box of company material
> presumably would have gone into Durango proper.
> The timetable shows the Carbon Junction siding as
> holding only 27 cars, so presumably a bunch of
> cars had to be taken into Durango. So I wonder
> whether that connection with the loop was in
> service on June 5-6 to facilitate the switching at
> Durango.
My stuff above doesn't answer your question but does get the dates correct, and the power for each train. There must have been some way
for them to bring part of the train into the yard, after all they were
making caboose hops and had to pick-up and drop them off.
Greg
>
> JBWX
