Thanks, Russo, for posting those beautiful photos by Tom Gildersleeve, and the link to Ernie's photos of the last run.
Well, in the following photos from Aztec to Farmington there was still some future left for trains on the Farmington branch.
484 is whistling off from Aztec for the remaining 14.4 miles to Farmington
The train is rolling along near Flora Vista
The train has pulled into Farmington and stopped at the sheet metal freight depot that has taken the place of the original depot that had burned some years earlier.
The train has drawn some young admirers who rode their bikes over to the depot to see 484.
In Farmington I made the unwise decision to drive home to Alamogordo, a decision that could have ended my train chasing adventures that night. Instead of following 484 back to Durango, I ended up driving south. It got dark somewhere south of Albuquerqe, and by the time I drove that long open-range stretch from San Antonio to Carrizozo, it was pitch black. Suddenly a huge black bull appeared in the dim VW headlights, standing crosswise in the middle of the road, immediately ahead. That I managed to avoid plowing into that bull at full speed on the narrow two lane road still amazes me today. Chasing 484 north to Durango and returning in daylight would have been a much better and safer choice.