Re: Last westbound with mid-train helper

John West Wrote:
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> Did all the trains from Antonito to Cumbres in
> that last year 1968 doublehead from Antonito to
> Cumbres? I'm wondering when the last DRGW
> mid-train helper operated over that stretch.


#498 was a mid-train helper for #493 on 08/28/67, John -

See [ngdiscussion.net] for several photos (some are a bit fuzzy, not unlike my aging brain).  That was the trip with two cabeese when John Gruber of TRAINS was aboard and you & I barely escaped meeting one another for the first time.  IIRC, Greg Scholl was there too.

#493 & #498 met #497 in Chama that evening, and all three engines returned to where they had come from the following day.  Or did they?  In my photos at [ngdiscussion.net] that show the train crossing Lobato Trestle and near the S-curves above the second crossing it's clear that #493 was the road engine, but the helper's number can't be read in any of them . . .    

- El Abuelo Histœrico, Greengo y Curmudgeoño de los Locomoturas Viejos y Verdes,
aka Der Grossväterlich DünkelOlivGrünDampfKesselMantelLiebHabender