Re: Chama Steam engine placement

Yes, it seems the "mid-train helper" era was the early-mid 1950's (pre-1956) before the steel cars came in (and interestingly Perlman went out). The train registers don't say where the locomotives were placed in the trains only what engines and crews went where at what time.
It should be pointed out that there weren't helpers "stationed" in Chama. "held over" would be a better term. The engines and crews were from Alamosa and held over to do helper work. Typically a crew would work from Alamosa to Chama then spend the next couple of days in Chama in helper service until being released to head back to Alamosa. The time books seem to reflect this pattern. How fast one got home was based on the number of crew working and the the number of trains to be run. At its peak in the early 1950's there were 13 engine crews in pool service between Alamosa and Cham. The unions kept the RR's on thier toes by requiring "penalty time" to be paid to the crews if they were forced to lay over more than a certain number of hours before being called.
An example of that was in May 1966 Eldon Morgan was called for the RMRRC trip. He ran 483 to Chama on Saturday, then sat there until Sunday afternoon when he helped the train back up the hill with 498 and ran light to Chama. I asked him what he did for 2 days "...went fishing on the Grande's nickle. After 18hrs I was paid penalty time until Sunday afternoon when I went back on duty".