September....maybe August....

The "September" westbound from Alamosa to Chama with all the tank cars had the 488 and the 487. The September date is based on the Kodak date stamps, because I have no other record. So it might well have been August when the pix were actually taken. I think the only way to pin it down more precisely will be if Jimmy can come up with some dates and engine numbers from the train sheets. But my pix from that trip clearly show a lot of tank cars moving in both directions, so presumably the refinery was still operating. The fire was sometime in I think middle or late September.

Here is a picture of the refinery taken in July 1963 (according to the date stamp at least).



Interestingly, when you Google Alamosa Oriental refinery fire one of the sites that comes is for Earth Services and Abatement, and they list remediation of the Oriental site as one of their success stories, along with the above picture which they apparently borrowed from my website without asking. C'est la vie.

JBWX



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 01/30/2023 11:08PM by John West.