I was there for the first C&TS train. My 8 year old son and I rode the first time in July 1971. Engine was 484 and it was coaled on the new wye at Antonito from a front end loader The depot had just been completed. I think the engine was getting water from a hose connected to an Antonito fire plug if my memory serves me. The Lava Water tank had been burned by arsonists. It was later rebuild using parts of the Antonito tank.
In 1972 I worked a few times as car attendant and my experience was as Bill Moyers described. Getting those steps up and down were a chore and I bumped my head several times on the doors in the box cars, they were/are low.
I have a ton of B&W negs and slides of those days but have only scanned a few.