Earl that makes a lot of sense. I had forgotten things were still up in the air in 1969. Also explains why they might have taken that carload of rail to Farmington on the. last 483 run.
I know in 1969 I had to consider a college and looked at Lewis College and Adams in Alamosa, simply because of steam(Who cares about academics anyway, right?) The freights were very much
uncertain, but I figured Durango would still be running to Silverton, and perhaps we would see freight again also. So it was down to Lewis college, until I found some sort of info stating that some rule existed that out of state freshman had to live on campus or not allowed to have a car, or something like that. That killed it for me and I stayed with University of Cincinnati and commuted to a branch.
I was a couple years too late. Glad I got out there several times from 56-68 though.
Another odd thing was when 473 ran back to Alamosa in the fall. I don't think it pulled anything. I remember in our 68 film/video Ernie had gone to extremes by getting one shot of 473, but it was crossing Cascade Creek Trestle. It would be the last eastbound K-28 move. I was impressed by his dedication to get that shot. He was standing up high on the east side of the bridge.
Greg