John K Wrote:
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> Great, great pictures!
>
> And a really dumb question
. . . is this the usual
> way used to reach Lava tank, climb the hill from
> the pumphouse? I'm guessing there were no
> snakes on this day!
SFAIK there wasn't even a jeep track into the loop in those days, and even today's "road" requires a high-clearance 4WD vehicle.
As noted elsewhere, in nearly sixty years of wandering around the D&RGW and the C&TS I have never seen a rattlesnake.
cdaspit Wrote:
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> Thanks for sharing these pics of the loop. First
> time I have seen pics with the connector track
> getting used.
SFAIK the loop was used only rarely to turn snow-removal trains back in the 'olden days', and had not been used for many, many years prior to this run.
davidtltc Wrote:
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> These are pretty awesome photos. If you have
> never been in this spot it is an amazing location
> on the RR, and a piece of area that will be used
> more frequently now that 168 will be apart of the
> main operations. Thanks Ernie Robart for being
> here during this period of history of the Denver
> and Rio Grande Western Railroad, thanks Russ
> for copying them and posting them for all to view.
Ernie spent most of his spare time from 1965 through 1968 chronicling the last years of the D&RGW narrow gauge, and then helping to preserve the railroad in 1969 and to restore it to operation as the C&TS during the early 1970's. He co-authored 'Rio Grande Narrow Gauge – The Final Years, Alamosa to Chama' with Joseph Hereford about twenty years ago; it is an invaluable resource for anyone interested in the last years of operations over Cumbres Pass. A few of Ernie's shots of the April 23, 1968 break-in run are in his book, but SFAIK this is the first time that all of his photos from that day have been scanned. It's a LOT of work – especially the de-spotting, etc., so I'm only finalizing about four dozen out of 218 in recognition of this year being the 50th Anniversary of the last freight operations on the Rio Grande narrow gauge.
Tomstp Wrote:
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> I have seen some good photos posted by Roosso,
> but, there is just something about these that is hard
> to turn loose of. Great shots!
Thank you all for the kind comments -
I'll pass them along to Ernie, who SFAIK does not post here on the NGDF. As noted above, Ernie spent a lot of time along the railroad at during its last few years
; I was lucky to spend a couple of weeks each summer in Narrow Gauge Country, and didn't have a decent camera 'til 1968. I am very grateful to Ernie for entrusting me with these priceless negatives and giving me the opportunity to scan and share them — they are truly a wonderful historic treasure!
- Russ
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/22/2018 12:27PM by Russo Loco.
