Re: Adventures on the Narrow Gauge, June '63 to June '64
| March 30, 2020 10:14PM |
In between the two excursions behind 5632, the Union Pacific ran an excursion from Denver to Laramie, with 8444 hauling the train over Sherman Summit from Cheyenne to Laramie and back. In Cheyenne there was an opportunity to see a 844 - Big Boy pair, almost like 2019, except for 4-8-8-4 4023 not being under steam.
844(4) put on an impressive show, hauling 17 passenger cars over Sherman, naturally without diesel assist. But the real demonstration of steam power came on the return, one of the most dramatic runs that I and probably a number of other fans ever got to witness. Riding by the open baggage car door, we got the front row experience. As timing worked out, the "City of St. Louis" with 3 E units
and 13 cars stood on the northernmost track. 844 with 17 cars was on the southern track that on the west side of Sherman pretty much parallels the northern track. The "City of St. Louis" left Laramie first. About 4 minutes later 844 pulled out, charging up Sherman Hill with a vengeance. While the "City" had a substantial head start, the gap started getting narrower and narrower. With the roar of 844's exhaust beats, you could barely hear the fans going wild as 844 passed the "City of St. Louis" and her 6000 diesel horse powers half way up the hill. AWESOME !
844 in Laramie with her 17 car train not long before that spectacular Sherman Hill climb
The NRHS convention ended in the late afternoon of Labor Day Monday with the return of 5632 from her second excursion. However, for a sizeable group of lucky fans with deeper pockets than mine, the good times were not about to end, as shown in the excerpt from the "Intermountain Express schedule: A passenger train from Denver to Montrose, a Silverton train charter followed by a narrow gauge mainline run from Durango to Alamosa, a train ride from Alamosa to Denver, and finally more than a thousand miles behind 5632 from Denver to Chicago. The 5632 run sounded fabulous, but what I was really desperate to do was to ride the Ridgway branch (to Montrose) thru that "other" Gunnison River Canyon and of course the narrow gauge mainline.
But I only had a small amount of money, and in any case the trip was sold out. So I prepared to board Colorado & Southern train 7 at 8 pm on Monday night for Dalhart, TX and the connection T SP's "Golden State" for Alamogordo. I was still trying to think of a way to the narrow gauge, but it seemed impossible so I would be enjoying "Travel Fun for Everyone" as advertised instead.
C & S 8 pulled into Walsenburg shortly after midnight for a 15 minute stop. I woke up and decided to take a walk outside. A semi truck had backed up to one of the mail cars and bags of mail were being transferred into the trailer. In passing, I asked the driver where he was taking the truckload of mail, and he said Durango. A light went off, and I asked the driver if I could ride with him to Durango, and he said "sure". Without a lot of deliberation, I grabbed my gear from the train and headed out for an all-night run to Durango, and the next narrow gauge adventure.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/30/2020 10:17PM by Olaf Rasmussen.
844(4) put on an impressive show, hauling 17 passenger cars over Sherman, naturally without diesel assist. But the real demonstration of steam power came on the return, one of the most dramatic runs that I and probably a number of other fans ever got to witness. Riding by the open baggage car door, we got the front row experience. As timing worked out, the "City of St. Louis" with 3 E units
and 13 cars stood on the northernmost track. 844 with 17 cars was on the southern track that on the west side of Sherman pretty much parallels the northern track. The "City of St. Louis" left Laramie first. About 4 minutes later 844 pulled out, charging up Sherman Hill with a vengeance. While the "City" had a substantial head start, the gap started getting narrower and narrower. With the roar of 844's exhaust beats, you could barely hear the fans going wild as 844 passed the "City of St. Louis" and her 6000 diesel horse powers half way up the hill. AWESOME !
844 in Laramie with her 17 car train not long before that spectacular Sherman Hill climb
The NRHS convention ended in the late afternoon of Labor Day Monday with the return of 5632 from her second excursion. However, for a sizeable group of lucky fans with deeper pockets than mine, the good times were not about to end, as shown in the excerpt from the "Intermountain Express schedule: A passenger train from Denver to Montrose, a Silverton train charter followed by a narrow gauge mainline run from Durango to Alamosa, a train ride from Alamosa to Denver, and finally more than a thousand miles behind 5632 from Denver to Chicago. The 5632 run sounded fabulous, but what I was really desperate to do was to ride the Ridgway branch (to Montrose) thru that "other" Gunnison River Canyon and of course the narrow gauge mainline.
But I only had a small amount of money, and in any case the trip was sold out. So I prepared to board Colorado & Southern train 7 at 8 pm on Monday night for Dalhart, TX and the connection T SP's "Golden State" for Alamogordo. I was still trying to think of a way to the narrow gauge, but it seemed impossible so I would be enjoying "Travel Fun for Everyone" as advertised instead.
C & S 8 pulled into Walsenburg shortly after midnight for a 15 minute stop. I woke up and decided to take a walk outside. A semi truck had backed up to one of the mail cars and bags of mail were being transferred into the trailer. In passing, I asked the driver where he was taking the truckload of mail, and he said Durango. A light went off, and I asked the driver if I could ride with him to Durango, and he said "sure". Without a lot of deliberation, I grabbed my gear from the train and headed out for an all-night run to Durango, and the next narrow gauge adventure.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/30/2020 10:17PM by Olaf Rasmussen.
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488 stops for water at Los Pinos tank on closing day Oct. 1979. Photo courtesy Don Richter
The NGDF was started by Don Richter and is currently operated in his memory by Nathan Holmes and others. Others who have contributed to the upkeep of this board are (in no particular order): Charles McCandless, Everett Lueck, Ted Wilton, Cole Adams, James Bane, John Moellmer, Jon Bentz, Linn Moedinger, lloyd lehrer, Rod Jensen, John Craft, Steven Forney, Herb Kelsey, Bill Ramaley, Russ Sperry (El Russo Loco), Josh McNeal, John West, Jim Armstrong, Bob Bergstrom, Greg Scholl, Blake Forbes Doug van Veelen and Mark Fuller.