Re: Water stops on Cumbres

Earl Wrote:
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> 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.
>

I well remember that day, being John's #2 man for that second set of trips. As I recall we did a runby a mile or so out of town(Antonito), another one at MP289, one at Whiplash, and another at Sublette, before taking water(or maybe you took water first---don't remember). I do remember we took the mid-train engine off and doubleheaded to Osier, where the engine was again placed in the middle for the run to Cumbres.

The mention of the 6 cars of ballast was noteworthy for me. First, on the 3 engine train on Friday those cars were pulled off at Cumbres and one of the engines (484 I think), took them to Antonito at sundown, and I got a really nice glint at Apache Canyon Road crossing. The final day, I boarded a flat car with 2 other guys and a C&TS brakeman and rode ahead of the midtrain helper (with trash gon ahead of it), all the way to Whiplash where we had the runby. Thats where we had a near mutiny if you remember while unloading for a runby.

One of my fondest memories of C&TS steam was riding on the flat car shooting video back on 484 behind me, then turning the camera around and shooting 497 ahead of us with a long string of cars, including those 6 ballast cars. My only regret that day was not having runbys at Mud or Toltec tunnel, which I have to this day never shot westbound. The reason was that the first weekend they did those shots, and many of the guys on the second weekend were the same so they wanted to not repeat some shots.

All in all good stuff. First met John West while chasing the first week (He had purchased tickets).

Good recollections Earl.
Greg