I know I'm a little late to this discussion, but Its been months since I've posted or had time to login.
Those trips were what I was able to experience in the 80s and early 90s. When I was a teenager, my father did consulting work with sheep co-ops in the 4 corners area, including Tierra Amarilla. It allowed him to take trips to the area regularly and I was able to tag along. Of course I was put to work wrestling livestock or something like that, but as a reward He got us tickets for a few Trowbridge specials and RMRRC specials as well. In Sept 84 we were on the train from like 8 am to 10 pm, or something like that. I'm pretty sure Earl had a record of that trip. We did a few of those "Cheap" trips. 1985, maybe 1987, 1991. I think they were $50 a pop. Which was a bit of money then, probably double a regular fare. (I worked for the D&S in 1991 and tickets for a regular trip were $37.15). I was able to ride one of their photographers specials then. No special equipment, just doubled heading 473 and 476 and maybe 10 coaches. We did one on the D&S and C&TS in 92. Both were showing off their swapped 482 and 497.
Then, I went to college, got married, and I don't think I've been on a photo special since. Just a handful of rides as a regular passenger. But those no frills trips were fun. Seemed like we had a lot of spontaneous stops on them.