The photo

It looks to me like the 483 was being switched into the short siding at Cumbres. It appears that there are cars on both the long siding and the main line. Could it be that the 483 is running around the cuts of cars to take the lead. It will pull into the long siding, pull the cars through the crossover and shove them back against the cars on the main and show the whole bunch against the caboose? The 493 already left the scene.
This was the only time the railroad ran a Cumbres turn in 1968 according to information I got from Ernie Robart years ago.
On the Durango end the 498 broke down coming over. A crew was sent from Durango to fix the locomotive, so that train took two days to reach Chama. This delay may have been the cause for running the Cumbres turn.
The Durango crew got eight hours off in Chama then went back to Durango, arriving in the pre-dawn hours. Some people got to lay in their beds and listen to the sounds of a steam-powered, narrow-gauge train running through the night.
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UPDATE: It was the 493 that took the train back, according to photos from the link in the next post. The 483 went to Alamosa light.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/11/2016 07:37PM by CharlieMcCandless.