I didn't realize the world was going to change as fast as it did. In 57 things were really moving with the narrow gauge, though I recall the operating people wondered how long it would last. I wasn't the only one taking pictures, but I bet a lot of those who were are long gone now and who knows what happend to most of those pictures. That's why I'm posting these now because only a handful of people have ever seen my photos. I wasn't attempting to be a Steinheimer, and I never had any reason to take my photos except for my own amusement.
Some of the people I met in those years hanging around Durango and Alamosa have become good friends, and among them are Roger Cook and Karl Zimmerman, and those guys take excellent photos. Roger has been sharing prints of his b&w material with me and he has some shots of the inside of the Alamosa shop and people pictures. He has a fine photo of Frank Morrow outside the Chama engine house, and another one of him in the Alamosa shop next to the accident prevention board that says how many days have gone by with out an accident. He hopes to publish these some day so I am not posting any of his work that I have.
I went off to college in 59 in Pittsburgh, discovered the streetcars there, and then 2 years in the Army in Germany, living near mainline steam, and when I returned in 65, it seemed like a good part of the world had been turned upside down. My first clue was seeing Barbara Streisand for the first time on TV at the Brooklyn Army Depot after getting off the very last troop ship in service, and things haven't been the same since. I think the key thing is to take pictures, film or digital, and hang on long enough and someone new will benefit from your work.
