This narrow gauge (mis)adventure followed closely on the heels of the January 28 - February 1, 1964 trip posted earlier. As I had mentioned, before leaving Chama on February 1, I stopped in the depot to see agent Trotter and to ask about future narrow gauge freight operations. He told me that a big shipment of large diameter pipe was underway, and that there would two 3-day freight cycles per week for the next three weeks. After arriving back at my parent's house in Alamogordo on Saturday evening, I had a night at home and then caught a ride back to the NMSU campus on Sunday. My parents had been a bit surprised to see me, thinking me to have been at school the whole time, but they were glad that I made out OK on this somewhat mad adventure. In those days I was very reluctant to ask my parents for extra money for extracurricular activities. But I did get enough to pay back the money I had borrowed, but not much more.
There were a few rail fans at NMSU and of course we ended up discussing my trip, and the fact that there would be two freight cycles per week for the next three weeks on the narrow gauge. This would mean that the second freight cycle would include a Saturday Chama - Alamosa turn. Since none of us had classes on Saturdays, this could open up an opportunity for a narrow gauge chase.
To make a long story short, we decided that four of us would leave for Chama Friday evening, February 14, and chase the freight to Cumbres and maybe beyond on Saturday. Being perpetually short of money, I decided that it wouldn't be necessary to make a $ 1.25 verification call to agent Trotter, since his information seemed firm.
One of our group, Tom Koglin, had access to a fairly beat up blue 1955 Chevy owned by a friend of his. Since we didn't plan to stop anywhere overnight, we left somewhere around 9 or 10 pm for the expected 8 hour drive to Chama. We didn't leave with a full tank of gas, figuring we could top off in Truth or Consequences or Socorro along the way. This turned out not to be a great idea.
We were not able to find an open gas station in T or C, and in 1964 there was no such thing as self service with a credit card. So we continued on. Same story in Socorro. The next opportunity would be in Belen, but approaching Belen the muffler started coming loose. With everything locked up in Belen we went to the only place that showed some life - the Santa Fe roundhouse and attached shop facilities. The night shift crew was very accomodating and let us pull into the brightly lit shop where we could reattach the muffler. It was a unique place. We were parked right next to a horizontal triple expansion Corliss steam engine that was cranking away to power an electric generator, a fascinating piece of machinery (it could possibly have been a 2-cylinder compound, but I can't be absolutely sure now).
With the muffler secured, we continued on with the fuel gauge needle resting on the Empty mark, where it had been for some time. Approaching Albuquerque, the road crosses the Rio Grande and climbs up the side of a hill. Just as we crested the hill and started down to Albuquerque, the motor died. Since the road is on a long downhill slope, we continued by coasting. At the lowest point of the slope there was an exit with an underpass under the freeway. Since this was downhill, we took the exit, passed under the freeway and, unbelievably, coasted into an open gas station and came to a stop next to the pump.
Thanking our lucky stars, we continued on. Somewhere between Espanola and Chama the area started to be snow covered, and it was hard to see where the edge of the road was. Luckily by then we got the first glimmer of daylight and were in full daylight the last miles into Chama.
(it is getting way too late, to be continued)
