Barely a week remains before the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad opens its 2016 season with plenty of work left to do before Memorial Day weekend. Today two coaches, two parlor cars and an open car fresh from winter maintenance in the Antonito shops are ready to roll the 64 narrow-gauge miles to Chama, N.M. the line’s western terminal.
Assigned to the task is locomotive 487, a Baldwin 2-8-2 shopped in Chama over the winter receiving its Federal Railroad Administration annual inspection and new side rod bushings.
“Every winter we pull the wheels out from under every car and inspect them, inspect all the bearings,” John Bush, C&TS president and general manager, says as the train lopes through the desert scrub rising toward the San Juan Mountains. The shop crew fixes windows and seats, performs other work, and every couple of years treats the cars to fresh paint, he adds.
The 487 and its consist are carded this day as a work train giving it the flexibility to stop, back up and come ahead randomly after conductor Ray Martinez informs the Chama dispatcher of his intentions. That’s to allow photo runbys for the passengers, mostly travel writers and other journalists invited to experience the historic steam railroad and spread the word to print and online audiences.
As the day progresses, Durango-based photographer Jeremy Wade Shockley is doing just that, posting frequently to the New Mexico Magazine Instagram page as time and cell connections allow.
Bush, named to lead the C&TS in 2012, is crowding 30 years in railroading and locomotive restoration. That includes a past tour as C&TS assistant general manager and chief mechanical officer in 1989.
He’s quick to connect the dots between the C&TS and the completing the transcontinental railroad in 1869.
“Eleven and a half years later there was a railroad in Chama,” he says. “What we’re doing is preserving this piece of Colorado and New Mexico history for the future to give us a window not only on the past of the railroad but to our own past as a nation.”
The 487, one of 10 K-36s the Baldwin Locomotive Works built in 1925 for the Denver & Rio Grande Western, is central to this coal-fired time machine.
“We have the locomotives that were built to run here running on the tracks they were built to run on, take water where they were built to take water, do the same job that they were built to do 90 years ago,” Bush adds.
The work train is making extra stops to check the side rod bushings especially on the engineer’s side where one is running a bit hot. The rod will be removed and the bushing dressed later in Chama, but for now fireman Carlos Llamas pulls out the air-powered Alemite grease gun from storage on the tender and with engineer Jeff Stebbins keeps everything well-lubricated.
Three other steam engines — K-36s 484 and 489 and K-27 463 — will be fired up for opening day. Another K-36, the 488, sits in Chama with its cab and boiler jacket off but is expect to run later in the season.
The 488 is undergoing its FRA 1,472-day inspection that includes new side rod bushings, boiler lagging and flues. The states of Colorado and New Mexico have owned the C&TS since 1970 with legislative appropriations funding the off-season maintenance and major overhauls.
The C&TS season runs through Oct. 23 with fall trains often running full as the aspen leaves turn from green to gold beginning in mid to late September. Trains depart daily from Antonito and Chama offering out-and-back rides to the lunch stop at Osier, Colo., and through service with a return by bus.
Two highlights of the line, Rock Tunnel with the 600-foot glimpse into Toltec Gorge at its west portal and the growling 4-percent grade to 10,015-foot Cumbres Pass, are east and west of Osier respectively.
Special trains this year include a geology train on June 19, July 4th dinner and fireworks train, a botanical excursion on Aug. 12, and Sunset Dinner Trains on select Saturdays in July and August. There also are half-day trips.
“We have just about every example of geologic formation on this line including ancient seashores, volcanoes, glaciated valleys,” says Bob Ross, board chairman of the 2,200-member Friends of the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad.
August also brings the Narrow Gauge Rendezvous.
“We’ll bring in some visiting equipment, and we will spend about three days with people who have worked on these railroads over the years reminiscing about what life was like on the railroad,” Bush says.
After a post-season lull, activity returns in December with Santa trains for a weekend each out of Chama and Antonito. In addition to the seasonal cheer, the trains benefit the local food bank and for the Toys for Tots program.
Details on schedules, fares and accommodations from coaches to parlor cars can be found on the C&TS website.
By the time the work train reaches Cumbres Pass, blowing snow drives most of the riders into the comfort of the cars. A hard rain awaits 2,200 feet below at Chama.
Welcome to the Rocky Mountains,” Ross says. “It’s May, and it may be spring in other parts of the country but not here.”
