Re: C&TS - June, 1982 - The Battle of Mud Tunnel.

We had crews based in Chama and Antonito - they still do. With trains running from both ends, this saves 2-3 hours a day per person in deadhead costs. At this time there were no provisions for taking a one way straight through trip. You started at one end, went to Osier, came back. When Scenic was running it in 1980, there was a through fare, but it was ridiculously expensive, some around the range of 2 halfway fares and you were responsible for getting a ride back. Later in 1982 we began selling thru fares and driving the customer's car to the other end (which was of course a bad idea). Later in the summer of '82 we began through service with an old van we had on the property. When we started driving the van, one train crew started working through to the other end and driving the van back.

The only exception to this was before the van started running, once a week or so, Russ and I would work all the way to Antonito, spend the night, and return the next day. That way we kept proficient with running the other side, and allowed the crew from Antonito to keep sharp bringing the trains down Cumbres.

I need to go back and re-scan the first batch of slides. I have a different post-scanning process now that works much better. My first attempts were with a program that processed the image (exposure, shadow control, color balance, etc.) before you made the final scan. Now, I scan the slide and save the slide in the hard drive, then go back and fiddle with the image and save the modified image as a separate file. Works much better.