A flying caboose drop at Carbon Junction on November 25, 1966

On November 23, 1966, engines 483 and 484 took a long train of drill pipe from Chama to Carbon Junction. The train was too long for the siding at Carbon Junction, so the crew left part of the train on the track leading to Farmington, and the road engine (either 483 or 484) and caboose continued on to Durango, the helper engine having run to Durango a little earlier. On other runs that I followed, the crew would take the cars that that did not fit into the siding on into Durango, but not on this trip.

On the morning after Thanksgiving, 484 and the caboose left Durango to pick up the train at Carbon Junction for the run to Farmington.

Here 484 and the caboose are coming along the Animas River (my apologies for the low resolution 8mm movie frames. I alternated between movies and 35 mm slides). It looks like the conductor has just uncoupled the caboose on the fly, and 484 is accelerating to get ahead of the caboose.





484 is getting well ahead of the slower moving caboose





At the west switch of the siding, the head end brakeman lined the caboose into the siding to couple onto the train, while 484 started to re-assemble the train for the run down the valley