“Son, It was your idea to be a railroader…” (the inside the cab story of #168’s incident)

Many rail fans wonder what it is like to be on the other end of a steam locomotive. The books and stories are full of the romance of the rails. Being part of a locomotive crew seems glorious, but fans are not privy to a lot of what goes on behind the scenes. Here’s a microcosm of what it takes to keep the trains moving:
Saturday, August 28 dawned bright and sunny. My plan for the day was to chase the Eureka/Glenbrook train to the top of Cumbres Pass and take several “Then and Now” photos for my book project. The regular tourist train was scheduled to depart at 10 am and the Eureka/Glenbrook consist was scheduled to depart at 10:10 am. I headed out to Juke’s Tree for the first photos. I was not alone as there were about 20 other photographers waiting for the trains. #487 showed up on schedule a couple of minutes past 10 am and we all took photos of its passing. I was then alerted by a text message from one of the Eureka crew that the Eureka/Glenbrook consist was still wooding up and would be delayed 1- 1.5 hours due to this. I relayed this information to the rest of the photographers and settled in for a long wait.

Around 11:15 am Jeff Stebbins (the engineer for #425 on that night’s Dinner Train) called me with a problem: his 1973 Maverick had broken down on the outskirts of Chama and he asked if I could assist him. I responded that I would come get him as soon as the Eureka/Glenbrook consist left town.

About 11:20 Eureka/Glenbrook whistled off and ran past Juke’s Tree to the delight of the gathered photographers. They all proceeded to chase the train while I headed back to town to rescue Jeff. When I arrived at Jeff’s Maverick (which he bought new!), I found that the left rear wheel bearing had failed and his wheel and axle were projecting out of the car about 4 inches. In addition, on the way over to Chama, Jeff had been nibbling on a piece of chicken and one of his temporary crowns on his front incisors had broken off and he now had a goofy toothless smile. Jeff had summoned a tow truck and he had the Maverick towed to a garage who told him they’d look at it on Monday. Jeff was scheduled to run #425 for the night train but had come over early to get photos of the Eureka/Glenbrook train heading up Cumbres. As he now needed a ride home from this event he managed to obtain a ticket for me for the dinner train in exchange for me driving him home to Taos after his shift.

Otto Perry June 18, 1948 DPL Collection


August 28, 2021


Railfans at Juke's Tree


To be continued...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/18/2021 09:34AM by Dave Peterson.