16-car narrow gauge passenger trains - 1966 versus 2022

On Sunday, July 25, I was surprised to see the daily double header pull into Silverton with 16 cars instead of the usual 15. This brought back memories of October 9, 1966, when 484 pulled the last Rio Grande narrow gauge "main line" revenue passenger train from Alamosa to Cumbres with 16 cars - the ESA Sorority excursion. I can't recall seeing 16 yellow passenger cars in a revenue consist in the intervening 56 years.

The extra car led to a slight modification in the Silverton switching operations - engine 482 took the extra car with her to the wye and turned before 476 pushed the remaining 15 cars into the stem of the wye for 482 to pickup.



Here 482 is leading the 16-car into the canyon on the return to Durango



Back in 1966, engine 484 handled the Alamosa - Cumbres round trip unassisted. Here are some fuzzy 8 mm movie frames - historic only because the Rio Grande stopped all charter trains on the "main line" after this run. That fall there had been 3 Alamosa-Cumbres charters run by the Lions Club, the Mormon church, and the ESA Sorority, as well as the 3-day Kiwanis Kolor Karavan. Maybe too much of a good thing for a railroad to be abandoned.