Re: Everyone stops at Coxo

I remember stopping an eastbound double header there one fine summer day, probably around 1979 or 1980, for the purpose of getting up steam. The King Coal mine had been having some labor problems so we had gone shopping for coal. We got some great looking stuff out of the Raton area, I believe. It was all nicely sized and looked good, but it didn't burn worth a damn. Poor Pops Chavez was making his first solo trip as fireman on the helper, and he was totally out of steam. The road engine wasn't much better off. The inside of both fire boxes looked like some ancient Indian burial mounds, while brown, oily smoke rolled out the stacks. We shook grates and raked and got steam up again for the final assault, and if I remember correctly, we were just about dead again by time we hit the water plug at Cumbres. That may be the same trip, which, on the return trip from Antonito the following day, Chris Pease, trying to trim the fire at Osier, hooked and removed the "Chris Pease Memmorial Clinker", which remained on the ground next to the tracks for a couple seasons.