Desperate Narrow Gauge Adventures in Winter - 1964 (1 of 4)

The January 28 - February 1, 1964 narrow gauge chase was one of my most desperate as well as one of my most memorable trips to the narrow gauge. Before 1963 my only contact with the narrow gauge had been the Silverton branch, but in the summer of 1963 I was finally able to start exploring the Alamosa - Durango main line. In May/June I rode the RMRRC excursion from Chama to Alamosa, rode the cab of 498 from Antonito to Alamosa on a freight, and rode the Illini special from Alamosa to Durango. On the return trip from the Denver NRHS convention in September I had a fairly desperate side trip to Durango and a freight out of Chama that I survived well enough by pure luck, rather than by any good planning on my part (as posted earlier).



These adventures only heightened my interest in the narrow gauge. In the fall of 1963 I was an engineering student at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces. I spent much of my limited free time rock climbing in the Organ Mountains, just a few miles east of the campus. Climbing was really great, but what I really wanted was to find a way to get back to the narrow gauge - the problem being that the closest narrow gauge point, Chama, was almost 400 miles away.



Getting to the narrow gauge was a really daunting challenge. Not only was the the narrow gauge a long way away, I didn't have a car, my discretionary allowance was very small, and the University took up most of my time. Nevertheless, at semester break from Wednesday afternoon, January 29 to Sunday, February 2, 1964, there seemed to be an opportunity. On Wednesday morning I called agent Trotter in Chama, and got the usual reply - a train was just leaving Chama for Alamosa, but this time I got better news - another 3-day freight cycle would start the next day, Thursday. I should mention that a pay phone call to Chama cost $ 1.25, which is nothing today, but a substantial hit in my very limited finances back then. I went out and bought several rolls of 120 B&W film for the totally obsolete Agfa box camera that I had inherited when my dad bought a new 35 mm SLR ( I still have the camera as souvenir, but I took it my last photos with it in June 1964, pacing 488 from Antonito to Alamosa)



After verifying that there were to be narrow gauge trains for three days, I quickly made up a plan. A couple of friends were driving to Los Alamos after classes, and could give me a ride to Santa Fe, from where I could catch the Chama Valley Bus Lines bus to Chama. There was one more problem. After buying the rolls of film, my cash balance was down to only 8 dollars. Borrowing money from several friends, I managed to bump this up to 18 dollars. Without doing a detailed financial assessment, I packed up some winter gear and the camera, and headed off with my friends for Santa Fe. Our drive took us thru my home town of Alamogordo, but I knew that if I went home for more finances, I would almost assuredly end up spending spring break at home rather than in winter-time narrow gauge country. About 10 pm my friends dropped me off at the La Fonda hotel in Santa Fe, from where the bus would depart for Chama at 7 am the next morning. I was thinking that I could just sit in a comfy chair in the hotel lobby until the next morning. That was OK for a couple of hours, but about midnight the manager stopped by. I told him that I was waiting for the bus, and that I could not afford to rent a room. He was very nice, and told me that while I could not spend the night in the lobby, that he had a broom closet with a bed in it that he would let me have for $ 1.50. After some good sleep in the broom closet, I boarded the bus in front of the hotel. It was a cut off shorty bus with a mail compartment in the back and 3 or 4 rows of seats behind the driver. People got on and off at various stops, but I was the only passenger going all the way to Chama.



We arrived in Chama sometime before noon. I checked into the Shamrock hotel ($ 3 per night, ouch !) and had the afternoon free to explore the Chama facilities, since the trains from Alamosa and Durango wouldn't arrive until well after dark. I checked out the railroad facilities and the Skyline Lumber saw mill that was preparing to ship out lumber loads on this freight cycle.



In the later part of the afternoon I hiked a couple of miles toward Cumbres, and was lucky when two section men on a speeder picked me up and gave me a ride back to Chama.

(to be continued)



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 02/02/2021 06:04PM by Olaf Rasmussen.