I actually never managed to ride the C&TS until '99 when my (then) teen-aged daughter and I rode it. First time I saw it was in the mid 70's (I have the dates written down but I'm too lazy to hunt it up right now) as part of a return from Arizona when I convinced Dad to go via Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Alamosa and La Veta. Drove up on US 84, New Mexico hwys 68, 570, 586 and then US 285 from Taos Jct. Highlights included seeing Embudo from across the river, water tank at Tres Piedras, #169 in Alamosa and driving on the original grade over La Veta. We went through Antonito at mid-day, nobody around, looked at 494 & 495, peeked in the engine house window at (IIRC) 463 in pieces, and some of the box car coaches. Dad was *not* impressed by the coaches, which pretty much killed the idea of riding the train in the future.
This routing was a hard sell, Dad had a dislike for Albuquerque dating from a xmass-time trip to Arizona in the early 60's in which we got snowed in there. Seems the only snowplow in town was broken and the cops weren't letting anybody leave town. Dad argued with them, pointing out that he was from Iowa, knew how to drive in snow, and had chains, etc in the trunk if needed. No soap. He finally found a back road they weren't watching and snuck up to Colorado where "they knew about snow" and we got home the night before Mom had to get back to work. On the news that night was an item that I-40 had just been re-opened through Albuquerque. Snowfall was like 3". Note: I don't personally remember this, it's family legend.
Hank
ps boy, this thread has gone farther than I expected!
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/27/2020 11:10AM by hank.
