Greg Scholl Wrote:
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> Neat photos. Looks to me like this is the relief
> train, as I spot two other engines in steam behind
> the engine(498's tender was already pulled away
> apparently). 498 is dead, especially with no
> tender. Looks like a flat car with ties to aid in
> re-railing, and the two engines will probably be
> needed to pull 498 back on the rails. I thought
> the D&RGW quit running trains in the winter after
> the oil stopped out of Chama, in 1964. So the
> date surprised me.
> Greg
Even though they "did not run in the winter" after 1964, they ran trains until the weather chased them off the mountains. The last trains across the railroad for the winter of 1965-66 were on January 14, 1966.
On January 15 and 26 spreader trains were run across the hill from Alamosa to Chama. After these trains, they gave up until spring.
498 went west from Chama to Durango on Dec. 31, 1965, double headed with 493. Shock and Payne and 498, Connor and Gibbs on 493. My guess would be the Farmington Turn for this train operation was postponed until Jan. 7 - with the results we see here......