Re: 484 on Farmington turn November 25, 1966

Sharrod Wrote:
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> 1966, that is still a pretty respectable level of
> traffic. So, the traffic when to trucks, or the
> demand for drilling pipe stopped?

It is a bit deceiving in that they still ran some pretty good sized trains then, but they only ran about once a week.

Trains departed Alamosa on Nov 10, Nov 17, Nov. 22, and Nov. 29, 1966.

The November 29th train was the last freight train out of Alamosa until June 12, 1967.

The drilling operations did slow down in the winter and the Rio Grande diverted as much business as they could to their own Motorway trucks. The lack of any operation after December 1 is a bit of an omen of things to come. In the end of 1965 and into January 1966, they tried valiantly to keep the line open with multiple flanger and spreader trains, only to have to give up to the elements. Perhaps Denver told them they did not want a replete of that and said "no trains after Dec. 1".

In fact, the last flanger/spreader train the Rio Grande ran was on January 26, 1966.