The track that crossed the loop was the one that went by the sandhouse, right!!! We were there also in 1968, and I have a nice slide of 498 preping for a run to Chama at the Sand Tower with some nice black smoke and superb blue sky. Later they took a caboose to Carbon Junction to pick up the train, and barely made the hill without a helper. I too remember the new-look yard in 1968, which was really the handwriting on the wall for the freight action wasn't it!!!
Now that we have established our footage from the the loop was not 1967, I am wondering if it wasn't after 1968 in fact. This guy did make trips to Chama for the C&TS in the first year, so this material could have been anytime between 1968 and 1971 actually!!
I have another source lined up to view this stuff, and the owner can be contacted eventually so we can sort it all out hopefully. The guy went to some efforts, and while there is the usual stuff, there are some nice hike-in types like the lobato trestle in the afternoon with a tank car train, Cresco tank, shot with the snowshed framing the train, high line shots, and a couple of shots at the high bridge over the Animas River.
There is a nice shot at La Jara that was taken from an elevated position on the west side of the tracks!!! Was there a building there, or what? I have seen a couple of shots from this vantage point. Also a nice shot of the Antonito depot as a train prepares to be split.
I really enjoy working with this old film, but editing can be a challenge. Many of the film shooters would take short shots to save film, and thus chop-up shots. This can create the illusion of the train jumping several times. To solve this problem we do a short dip to black each time. I found this to be the most effective way to make it a smooth transition.
I had thought about putting some of my dads 1960's stuff with this, but dad's material is all from 8mm, and I didn;t want to break the continuity of this guys material.
Another question before I wrap this up. What was the name of the eastbound hill out of Durango(was it Florida?) and what were the other EB grades?
Greg
Greg
