It would not surprise if Tom is not too familiar with the territory between Chama and Dulce, I don't think many of us were. That is one of the reasons Olaf's pix are so valuable. Eastbound it was easy to chase from Durango to Juanita, but then you faced a long detour via Pagosa Springs and were unlikely to see the train again before Chama. Westbound trains from Chama to Durango almost always were leaving about the same time as the first Cumbres turn of the day. Now if you had a choice between chasing a hard working two engined train up the hill, or a single engined train more or less drifting downhill to Gato, which would you pick? I can remember chasing west out of Chama only twice, and in each case it was because I couldn't chase up the hill....on December 19, 1961 I chased west as far as Monero because the road to Cumbres was blocked with show. And in May 1968 I chased west because there were no trains to chase east. Other than that we might get a quick shot of a train climbing out of Willow Creek, and then quickly go back into Chama to see where the hill turns were. Olaf got there often enough that he was able to see stuff that often evaded those of us less dedicated.
JBWX