Re: Cumbres Pass before the road was paved.

Sharrod Wrote:
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> Was the state liable for repairing any of that
> damage to the track?

Josh McNeal Wrote:
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> I was curious about that myself, or if there was
> some kind of loophole since the railroad had
> been officially "abandoned" by then.


IIRC, the D&RGW had applied to the ICC for abandonment at the time the road was being constructed over the top of the pass, but permission to abandon had NOT been granted when that 1968 photo was taken.  I'm not sure when the road was finally paved, but am pretty sure that care was taken to not bury the tracks at the top of the pass.  It was a different story down in the narrows during 1969 and 1970.  Per page 51 of Terry Ross's history of the early days of the C&TS: 
" . . . worst of all there were four miles of line near Chama that set one wondering how this little train might ever be run again.  The New Mexico Highway Department was in the process of of having state route 17 improved east of Chama.  The contractor for the highway grading work, Siegrist Construction Company, had pointed out that the proposed highway alignment might not be compatible with the railroad, but the D&RGW had received approval to abandon the line, and so did not object to highway fill sloping over onto their right-of-way.  The highway department, it appears, also chose to ignore the problem, and accordingly Siegrist has gone ahead with the work, and dirt and boulders came tumpling down the mountainside closer and closer to the track.  Finally the highway fill came right up to the track in places and large boulders sat on top of the heavily kinked-up rails.  Bulldozers moving back and forth had chewed up ties and bent rails or knocked them loose.  In addition, there were ten places where rail sections had been removed by D&RGW crews in order to allow the highway contractor to place culverts under the railroad grade . . . "

IIRC, New Mexico's governor David Cargo intervened, and ordered the Highway Department to have all the debris cleared off of the railroad (apparent in Ernie's photo, above), and Siegrist also contributed men, tools, dynamite and much expertise towards rebuilding the rail line.  Terry Ross, Ernie Robart, George Swain, Al Stevenson, Herman Barkmann and several other volunteers mostly from Albuquerque and Santa Fe spent several weekends replacing the missing and damaged rails, completing their work barely in time for the first C&TS train to arrive in Chama on Sunday, September 6, 1970.

It wasn't until the Fall of 1972 that steel retaining walls were installed to prevent – or at least minimize – the intrusion of rocks from the highway embankment onto the railroad right-of-way:


- El Abuelo Histœrico, Greengo y Curmudgeoño de los Locomoturas Viejos y Verdes,
aka Der Grossväterlich DünkelOlivGrünDampfKesselMantelLiebHabender



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 03/31/2020 03:51PM by Russo Loco.