One night during the Friends session A work week last year, I went up to Alamosa and watched them for a while. It was a cool SLV thursday evening, and they were in the process of returning the cars back to the Monte Vista line. The line of cars as Doug said went from Antonito to Estrella, and this was probably one of the first cuts to go back. They had pulled the cut out the the yard east of town, maybe to set out some cars, and started to shove west. This wasn't a long cut, maybe 80 cars, and while I feared getting stuck in traffic, they were moving right along. I think there was a brakeman protecting the rear, but I wondered how long it would take them to get to South Fork, especially on the marginal track west of Monte. (We don't need to get into a discussion of what a "safe" speed is, there is one of those going on in one of the model railroad forums, and everyone has an opinion).
When I left town that weekend, I was amazed to see that there were only a mile or two of cars on left the Antonito line. I had heard that they had brought in some IPH crews from elsewhere to expedite the process, but treat that as hearsay.
Bill Kepner