Re: C&TS - October, 1982

The train stopped short of the highway crossing to keep from fouling the road with the long train. Here 487 is just getting underway, departing Cumbres. Off to the right you can see former C&TS Superintendent John Oldberg and his wife rolling by the train. He had come up from Colorado Springs to do some railfanning.



Thus, ended the 1982 operating season….

But we weren’t done quite yet. On Monday, October 11, 488 deadheaded the Antonito consist to Chama for the winter. As usual, family and friends were invited to ride. This resulted in one of the more complicated train chases/rides in my memory. Our good buddy from the D&S over in Durango, Jeff Johnson (who was a lowly fireman back then) was on his way home to Oklahoma for the winter, passed through Chama on his way home. Russ and I wanted to do some back country chasing, and we also wanted to ride the train a bit. Jeff was up for a morning chase but needed to be on the road to Oklahoma by noon. So, this is what we did: Russ and I went up to Cumbres in his car and left it there. We got in Jeff’s old Chevy truck and drove to Antonito. Our plan was to chase the train west out through Lava and Big Horn to Sublette and board the train there. Jeff would continue his trip home from Sublette. We’d ride from Sublette to Cumbres, get his car at Cumbres and follow the train off the hill. The nice weather of Sunday, rapidly degenerated that night, the forecast for Monday was snow, making for some interesting photography.

Under a dark and threatening sky 488 leaves Antonito .



The intent here was to re-create a Jim Shaughnessy low shutter speed pan shot as we paced 488 out of town. Unfortunately, it was a bit too dark, I couldn’t slow the shutter speed down enough to get the running gear to blur without putting making 488 blur too.



By the time we got out to MP 285, the snow was moving in.