Re: Livestock loading on the NG

I was present in Chama in 1966 for what I believe was the last stock movement on the D&RGW narrow gauge, outside of a few small movements of horses on the Silverton branch. It took place right after the Rocky Mountain RR Club trip. We saw a string of double deck cars in Alamosa that had just been run through the car shop--new foot boards on top of several cars, repaired slats on the sides, new air brake dates, and other miscellaneous repairs. That cut of cars then was moved to Chama and early one morning, the cars were moved to the pens at the wye, and the pens also had been repaired and weeds cleaned out of the pens. The sheep were trailed in, and the loading went fairly fast as I recall. The engine moved the cut of cars forward for each loading, and when complete,the loaded cars were moved down to the depot, the caboose was added, a few minutes were taken reading orders and checking air, and off it went, up Cumbres to Alamosa. My pictures are at home, so I don't recall which engine was used, but the whole event was quite fascinating. As I understand it, the sheep were unloaded in Alamosa, fed, watered, and reloaded into standard gauge cars for wherever their destination was. This was obviously well planned in advance as cars had to be repaired, stock pens cleaned out, crews scheduled, feed and water made available, and the stockmen had to have the animals there at the appointed time. Doing it by truck, and we see thousands of sheep trucked into the high countery every summer, seems relatively painless compared to a rail movement.