I asked my wife (who is most definitely NOT a train buff but barely "tolerates" my interest) about some of these scenarios as to what she might "allow" for the family.
First, let me say that we have been to Chama but it was the year that only #487 was running and while we saw it steaming up for a run down to Antonito, it wasn't a scheduled run day. We went on to Durango (which was our destination in the first place as my wife felt that the D&S would be more family friendly.) She knows that I am planning a trip to Chama and Durango to ride both but she isn't so sure that she and the kids would want to ride a train all day again.
That brings us to this morning when I told her about some of the suggestions that had been made and then asked her to get a reaction from someone totally average. Here are some of her observations:
1. Have a short train from Chama that would last 1.5 to 2.5 hours. This would be MUCH more agreeable to the average person (or at least to my wife!) She specifically asked if the fare was around $60 like on the D&S. I told her that the speculation was that fares would be around $21 for the short trip and she didn't have any problem with that!
Gentlemen, this is a lady that I have to (figuratively) drag kicking and screaming onto a train. Quite frankly, she has compained that I schedule all of our vacations around trains (not completely true! There was that vacation in 1994 where I don't recall a train.....wait! No, that was our honeymoon....) The bottom line is that she WOULD be agreable to a shorter trip but not the full one. It was an interesting perspective.
