Wow, I didn't mean to stir up a hornet's nest on this topic, I did definatly see this in print. I thought it was in an issue of N&SL but I must have been mistaken on this part. I definatly need to find this article, find out who wrote it, and find out their source of information.
IMHO, I really believe this to be false information. The reasons:
1. The last run was made on Sept. 1, 1941, and scrapping started from the Santa Fe end less then a week later.
2. Pearl Harbor was attacked on Dec. 7, 1941, at which time scrapping would have been well underway. How long after that did the US government decide to construct Los Alamos?
3. Why does this come to light now some 64 years later? Even though such operations would have been under the tightest security, I think at least one person would have made note of trains on a supposidly abandoned railroad. Where is this person or hisher siblings to state this fact?
Honestly I believe the findings of Gorden Chappell and the Colorado Railroad Museum, both of whom I have the upmost confidence in "getting the facts straight". Though, I am also not closed minded, I am open to any new information that may come in my direction. Maybe with the current declassification of some secret documents the real truth in this matter will come to light.
Regards,
Don F.