AndyA Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> So I have some questions -- When was the first
> passenger run -- was that the Govenor's run? I
> see that there are many of you who contributed
> to this thread -- were you there during the early
> times too?
I was there only a few days in 1970, Andy -
On short vacations from California. IIRC, the Governor's Special on October 4, 1970, was the first train to haul passengers, but the first "regular" passenger train didn't run until mid- or late summer in 1971. In early September 1970 I worked one day on the track crew
fixing attempting to fix a kink in the curve just west of Calico Cut, and one day on the track crew when the first train somehow got through the narrows and arrived in Chama about three hours late for the welcoming Bar-B-Que. I returned briefly on a quick camping trip in mid-October, and filled in as a trainee brakeman on a run from Chama to Antonito — see story & photos at [
ngdiscussion.net].
My unofficial foster brothers John and Tom Hall joined me on another trip in 1971, and we spent Labor Day Weekend camped out at Osier (see [
ngdiscussion.net]). By late summer 1972 I had moved to Telluride – just a 'hop, skip and a jump' from Chama – and caught the last two of the C&TS "Three Great Events" dinner trains from Chama to Osier (see [
ngdiscussion.net]), the latter being followed early the next morning, after a very late night, by the C&TS first Photo Freight, the Toltec Rattler of 10/22/72. (See [
ngdiscussion.net]
et seq.) I can't really call it the first Phraud-O-Phreight®, since there was no attempt to replace Ernie Robart's classic "
CUMBRES AND TOLTEC SCENIC RAILROAD" lettering – w/ Herald – by either "
DENVER & RIO GRANDE WESTERN" w/ Herald or the flying
Rio Grande logo.
- El Abuelo Histœrico, Greengo y Curmudgeoño de los Locomoturas Viejos y Verdes,
aka Der Grossväterlich DünkelOlivGrünDampfKesselMantelLiebHabender
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/31/2020 07:33PM by Russo Loco.
