Re: Water stops on Cumbres

I doubt we will ever see the spectacle of a full tonnage (1500 tons) train westward from Antonito. But, back then they were daily occurrences. Once they got the engines watered and coaled in Antonito and the helper cut into the train, they'd head west. Once across the US 285 crossing, the throttles would come out, the Johnson Bars hooked up to the Company Notch and away they'd go across the flats out of town. When they got to the end of long tangent at MP 283 the might be up to 15-18 mph, then the grade would start to settle in. By MP 284, the speed was dropping below 15 and the Bars would start getting notched down, one notch at a time. Finally by MP 285 they would be down to 10-12 mph, wide open working hard and making the same sound you would here today climbing the hill out of Chama. This grade of 1.42% is pretty unrelenting all the way to Big Horn at MP 299.

These engines when working hard need to stop for water every 12-15 miles. At 10 miles out of Antonito, Lava Tank is a bit short, but that's where the water was. So, they'd stop for a drink here, before continuing the slog toward Big Horn. Once at Big Horn, the grade begins to stair step somewhat, but the increased curvature keeps the train pulling pretty hard. 15 miles from Lava brings us to Sublette for another water stop. From Sublette west, the stair steps continue, and curves stay sharp, or even sharper. The engines continue to work hard to Rock Tunnel, where the grade levels out. From Rock Tunnel, MP 315, through Osier to MP 323, the profile shows the grade completely flat. At 13 miles from Sublette, Osier is the next water stop. It is easier to get the train underway here than stretched out on the grade at Los Pinos. By getting water here, we can easily make Cumbres on a tank of water.

Once past 323, there are a couple of stair steps to Los Pinos Siding where the grade pitches back to 1.42% for the rest of the climb to Cumbres, where one final drink is taken before dropping off the hill.

Retired D&RGW engineman Jim Shawcroft related to me his first trip west as a fireman in 1957. He had been over the road once before - in daylight. It was now 11pm when they blasted out of Antonito with 494 cut in the middle of a tonnage drag. Benny Greathouse was his hogger. Benny put 494's throttle back against the coal gates and left it here most of the night. It was totally black outside. All Jim saw for the next 6 hours was a bright white firebox, a steam gauge and a water glass. The sun came up was they were drifting across Lobato Trestle running light for Chama.

On the personal front. When we ran John Craft's charter in 1992, the last trip out of Antonito was 497 leading 484 cut in mid-train. We had 33 cars including 6 loads of cinder ballast. Even at 607 tons (less than tonnage for ONE engine), we had both engines hooked up high and the throttles wide open for the climb out of Antonito. We did the usual number of photo runs between Antonito and Sublette. When I got up on the tank at Sublette, we had less than a foot of water. That was a bit of an eye opener.

Back around 1989 we did a charter for Jim Trowbridge using 487. We had a nice big train of over 20 cars headed west. 487 worked pretty hard. At Big Horn we did we did a runby at the wye, then rolled the entire train down to the west end of the siding to back in the siding and clear up for the westbound morning passenger which was coming up pretty fast. We backed into the siding with the injector running, and made a pretty quick stop. The injector made a sickening slurp noise and broke. Investigation showed about 6" of water. The quick stop had made the water slosh enough to uncover the water inlet. The grade is a bit downhill at Big Horn, so the water sloshed back forward, and I got the injector running again. The plan was to fill 487 up as much as we could, then head west with the train, running the injector trimmed back as far as we could. Where ever we were when we sucked the tender dry, we'd stop, drop the train and run for water. Right around MP302, the injector gave up. We tied the train down, and shuffled off to Sublette. We still had a full glass of water, but to save water we turned off the dynamo, and finally also turned off the air pump. We still had nearly a 1/3 of glass when we got to Sublette and filled a very empty tender tank....