Re: First "Normal" vs VERY First trains of 1968 . . .

Correct on all counts. We were doing 8444 trip I believe when the Mad dash stuff happened with the 2 K-28's. I guess dad found out they were running the first train to Farmington, so we started there, with 478 to Farmington on June 3. Then on June 4th we shot 498 heading to Gato, and I believe we shot the Silverton train some first. Anyway as was pointed out 483 and 493 left Alamosa on June 4th, so we couldn't be two places at once (of course now with cloning maybe we could). So yes what we got was (a) First train to Farmington, and first run from Durango-Chama, and first run from Chama-Alamosa. These were the normal operations, if we can consider anything normal for 1968!!! I got my first movie camera, and my first real 35mm camera in 1969!!! Graduated High School in 1969 and for awhile entertained the idea of college in either Alamosa or Durango. Durango was a better choice, but they would not allow freshman to have a car on campus so screw that!!! I needed a chase vehicle, even if only for the Silverton line. But in 1969 we didn't know for sure what was to become of the freight stuff.
For what its worth I am working on this next NG show and it will have some stuff from June 3-6 out of the Durango area. The guy was there the same time we were but did different things. For instance 478 helped 498 back to Durango on June 5th, and he got a couple shots of that near Durango. That (1968) plus a few scenes from 1966 and 1967 will be put into a "Final Years" segment at of the video to wrap-it-up. Seems like I have been dealing with these scenes for years trying to complete this thing.
Greg