Well, from trips in the 60's, 70's, 90's and 2014, I can tell you the average guy might have issues with much of that area. I tried to get to Whiplash curve from Big Horn, and had a really rough time of it(And never made it), and when I got home I had about 2200.00 in damages to struts, and other undercarriage work.
Here are your options.
(1) You can get a shot outside Antonito, then leave and head for the road to Osier(Also splits to Sublette and Big Horn).
The further you go out of Antonito on the road toward Ferguson Trestle the worse it gets, thus doubling back to Antonito is probably better.
(Note) If you have a 4WD, or ATV you might go the back way along the RR to some locations between Antonito and Big Horn, but you better not try in a regular vehicle. Lots of sage brush to scape up your vehicle as well.
(2) If you take the road to Osier(Comes in near Magote) You go maybe 4 miles and there is a split. Go left and it takes you to a road into Sublette on your right. But you likely have time to make it into Big Horn.
(3) This same road from the split to Bighorn-Osier, goes east and it will take you to Big Horn. There are several ruts in the road between Sublette and Big Horn, some with water, so you need to slow down to negotiate them.
(4) Big Horn has a Wye, and you can find spots around there(Watch for rattlesnakes in all of this country west of Antonito). There is a road that crosses the tracks near the wye, and continues on the side of the tracks past the wye. Thats the one I took, and could not see the path to Whiplash and got into some nasty stuff. There is a road that follows on the north side of the tracks, and takes you to the upper whiplash, but its not great either.
(5) From Big horn after getting a shot, take the same road back toward Osier. You should be able to beat it to Sublette, or MP305 curve before Sublette. The RR comes into the road at MP305. Then a bit further west is the road down into Sublette....Very steep down to the tracks and buildings. They stop for water.
(6) From Sublette you go back to the access road, and go west, and past the road that you came in on from Mogote, now heading toward Osier. In this whole area there are a couple of overlooks where you might be able to look down on distant views around the east side of Toltec Tunnel, but you may need to explore some. Have seen some nice shots above Phantom Curve, but here you need to climb down the cliff a ways. Risky!!!
(7) Osier I think its about 10 miles from the main highway (17) to Osier, so its a lot of dirt/gravel roads to travel. If its dry you should have no trouble getting into Osier, but its a switchback dirt road, and if wet can be rough.
To get anything coming into Osier from the east you may need to walk down east otherwise you will just get them stopping at the lunch building.
Return trip
Leaving Osier you can walk down to the loop area, but be advised they will not be working the engine much downgrade to Antonito. Long drive out from Osier.
After Osier you can try an overlook, or go back to Sublette. We skipped Sublette going east, and shot the MP 305 curve, the engine was actually working, so there must be a slight upgrade eastbound here. They usually have a pile of ballast nearby on the road here.
You can try for something again near Big Horn, and then after that head back to Antonito for something outside of town, or arrival.
As I said you can get into some of those hard to do spots, but you would be wise to really know where you are going back there.
If you want to get creative and get something unusual....walk 3 miles to Toltec Tunnel from Osier. That would likely be your only shot between Antonito and Osier though!!!
Chasing is probably not the right word for this area. Its much harder than Chama to Cumbres.
Check with some of the locals for their input as well.
Greg
PS I would go for "Quality" versus "Quantity" cause there are not many options for a bunch of shots, unless you want to spend 2-3 days shooting back in this area! I think you will enjoy and appreciate the ride once you try to "Chase" in this region.
