A real response....
At the risk of replaying a lot of old stuff, I'll keep it as simple as possible.
The the exception of the Silverton Mixed, no freights on the NG were scheduled. In very general terms, in the 1950's the NG operated about 3 times a week, with more trains when traffic demanded. In the 1950-53 period and 1956-57 period, trains ran nearly daily with even more trains run during the stock season. The limitations on trains run was generally caused by the number of crews available.
When I say "3 trains a week", it is ment as "3 westbound departures from Alamosa a week". A vast majority of the traffic was gas field supplies (pipe, drill mud, etc) that came into Alamosa on the wide gauge and was transfered to the NG and sent west to the Farmington area. When enough carloads were generated, a train was sent west. At the same time a train would go east from Durango. The trains would meet in Chama. After resting, the crews would swap trains and return to thier home terminals. The Durango crew would train thier train home, then the next day take it to Farmington and exchange the loads for empties, then return to Durango to wait for the next call to go east. The Alamosa crew would take thier train and cut it into 2 or 3 sections taking each section up to the summit of Cumbres and returning for the next section. If the train could be taken up in 2 sections, the train would be put together at Cumbres and headed for Alamosa. If a third Turn was needed, the Alamosa crew would return to Chama after the 2nd trip and make the 3rd turn and run to Alamosa the next day. So, even with 3 trains a week, there was at least 2 operations going on at anytime on a particular day. When things got real busy, Durango would occasionally send a second eastbound toward Chama. This was quite rare. As mentioned above, usually there was not enough manpower to field as many trains as they wanted to run.
By the early 1950's freight business on the Silverton Branch was on a serious decline. While the summertime passenger business grew from 3 to 5 to 7 days a week, freight traffic was rare. In the off-season the Silverton Mixed ran once a week. When the last operating mine in Silverton closed in 1953, the winter time run was cancelled.
