Getting ready to ballast

A few shots from the beginning of the ballasting program way back when. The first two show the arrival of the EBT cars in Chama some time in 2000. The first picture shows five, were there five or six? The third picture shows two of the cars dumping ballast in the fall of 2001.....a dirty job. The last photo shows the 488 and two cars dumping just outside of Antonito. The 488 had come in on the passenger train and was turned to do a little late afternoon ballast spreading. At that time at least the EBT cars had their cross dump doors, and it was done the old fashioned way with a chain to control the doors and a tie across the rails in back of the lead truck to spread the rock. Primitive but a time tested railroad way of doing things when that was all that was available.









JBWX



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 10/03/2018 03:45PM by John West.