NEW MEXICO, PLANES TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES

lobo lodge, or rancho del oso pardo, as it is also called



working past the cabins



the highway 17 crossing



the already noted orgasm curve, with the train going the other way today





there were a few places we could shoot down upon the train



steadily working the way uphill

 

we have moved again, we are back near coxo crossing again, but looking down from uphill, at a spot called kodak rock, i am at the base and michael will hopefully post up something from up on the rock, i just didn't think my fat old sea level breathing self could huff and puff up onto the rock and get back down to the car fast enough, we are probably at 9000 + feet here, only 2 miles or so from topping out at cumbres pass at 10,222 feet, i live at 3 feet elevation, so you know i was feeling some altitude. notice the telephone booth in front of the engine coming out of the trees, there are quite a few of these left lineside on the c&t





i was surprised at the relatively low level of freeloaders chasing, especially since it was a weekend, but there were some in some surprisingly remote spots, accessing either via forest service roads or via atv trails, note the partial work truck lower right that i missed and forgot to crop out, i know, lazy processing

 

we are now at the top of cumbres pass, the railroad has a Y and a yard here, a section house, and some other stuff that i do not remember but our resident historian michael can probably fill in, here we parked our car, and joined the charter attendees whom had ridden up on the bus and boarded the train for the rest of the day's journey towards antonito. those folks got some but not all of the preceding photo locations, this was an unusually large charter, 80 seats sold, so that alone created some logistical issues regarding photo stops, where do your detrain and place 80 bodies with cameras, tripods and video equipment.







and for some reason i think i had to take this, that i couldn't move 2 steps to my left to cut out the head/camera arm in the lower right corner and no crop looked right to me so they stayed in



doing some switching to get us with both engines upfront, and get the whole train into the siding so the regular eastbound passenger train could pass us and get into osier for their lunch break, all trains stop at osier, there is a contract caterer that does the lunch buffet, it is included in all the train fares, and i will say, it was very tasty both days, nice fresh salads, a good hot mac n cheese as an entree choice one day, definitely hit the spot on this charter, i'm used to whatever pop tart/available options the nearest convenience quickie mart has for charter lunch. this charter was downright civilized, decadent even.



and the rolling stock, i really should have shot some of them as the main subject of a few pieces, those black cars are genuine western narrow gauge stock cars, some for cattle and double deckers for sheep, and all marked and labeled as to year of construction and year of rebuild, some rebuilt as far back as 1922, wood frames. pretty cool, this is authentic.

 

this next location is tanglefoot curve, mp 329.79, most of the charter walked the half mile or so from cumbres pass, since our train was sitting on the siding, waiting for the regular eastbound passenger train that had pulled from chama about 2.5 hours behind us, to pass us on it's way to the lunch stop. the east and westbounds meet at osier, and folks riding have options, stay on their train after lunch and on to the end and bus back to point of origin, or switch to the other and return to point of origin on the train. we were scheduled into osier for lunch after the eastbound had pulled out, then we pulled in, and then the westbound could leave, then we had at lunch
here is the eastbound, going ahead of us.



the builders ran the track literally all over the place, frequently doubling back around, whatever allowed the cheapest right of way construction on their way down to antonito, so here you can see some of that gradient change



and here it comes around again, and look back and onto the upper track, the orange fire watch speeder, every train gets one, with a small water tank, a short hose line and a little honda gas powered pump

 

and here it comes, our train, right on the heels of the passenger train, which is ok, we did the runby, they loaded us and we made 2 more photo stops before getting to osier, and i should mention that right here was the only rainy moments of the trip





trying to get the shot, keep the camera dry, not have rain droplets on the lens, and not get myself too wet so i wasn't uncomfortable the rest of the day, the life of a railfan is not always easy, but it's ok now, to be sitting here processing on a saturday night, it's comfortable weather, and beauty and the beast is on the family channel as background for me

 

we are now off the train in the los pinos valley, for a runby over the los pinos trestle, mp 324.45, an area that i think is one of the prettiest on the whole line, i overheard one of the train crew talking to someone, those beautiful valley homes, are off grid, using propane for generators and for refrigerators and freezers, solar panels and compost toilets, the valley does not have utilities, and a lot of these homes are owned by folks using them only in winter as snowmobile bases... and yet another water tank, same standard style, and these are almost all functional so the trains have a lot of options on water



and a trainsscape, this great beautiful valley



we had the time and the space so we did 2 runbys here, allowing participants to move around for different angles





i talked about the homes, and forgot to include any shot with them in the frame

 

this location is big horn, site of a Y to allow equipment and other train moves to be turned around, or gotten out of the way. there is also a siding around the bend where the railroad stations a tank car of water if needed, on the flanger charter of 2016 we took water here





and this location had no railfan/train crew name, just a place on the high desert that we stopped for a runby, because of the rainbow, notice we are now down into the sagebrush dominant high desert ecosystem, watch out for rattlesnakes, and do not worry about stepping in the mule deer poop, everybody does it and it's all dried and crumbly anyway







and that concludes saturdays charter, we rode on into antonito, boarded buses back to cumbres pass, where we had a nice dinner, and a slide show featuring slides taken by some of the charter attendees, who were there 50 years ago chasing the last freight on this line. we then grabbed our car and headed on downhill to chama, as time allows i will be posting from sundays charter, we did quite a few different locations, and had a full sunny day no less.

 

so it is sunday morning, a bright blue new mexico land of enchantment sky, we took the car to cumbres pass, got on the motor coach and had a nice hour or so ride to antonito colorado, where we boarded the train for the westbound run back to chama. we were delayed a few minutes, maybe 20 or so by a brake issue that got sorted out, this is from the open gondola of our train curved around the loop track in antonio yard. and today i learned a painful lesson, both physical and emotional, i have a thin spot on the top of my noggin, and i did not wear a hat, so i burnt my scalp, that hurts.



ferguson's trestle, also known as hangman trestle, the spot my avatar photo at sunrise was taken in 2016, but from the other side, as you can see, today we are a true doubleheader, all the way to cumbres pass.





on to a place known as gravity hill



and whiplash curve

 

Well i still thought i had hair, the painful lesson of just how thin it has gotten was the emotional aspect of the sunburn pain

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

 

Yes, one must always protect against the black dandruff!

 

we are stopped in sublette, a former track worker community, to both take on water and to allow the westbound passenger train that left antonito behind us get past, they have a lunch meet in osier with the eastbound. i am indebted to michael for showing me these places to photograph from, places many times not known about by the other charter folks, we are probably a quarter mile fast hike up a steady climb, but i made it, now looking down on the sublette siding


the westbound pulls in and takes on water



then they pull out, followed by their fire speeder



our turn at the tank, and there was some question on would there be enough water for both trains



enough water to allow a couple of runbys



and i have to try to remember to start getting more shots of the rest of the train, not just staying focused too much on the engine

 

on to osier for lunch, where we waited on the train for the eastbound to clear out





and the westbound clearing out ahead of us

 

so we moved on after lunch, now i am going to take a moment and go on a little thought here, i have been very fortunate the last few years, i have been able to do a fair amount of travel, and all the years of my life i have felt that one of the prettiest places i have ever seen, out of many, has been the bluegrass region of kentucky, i have been there 3 times in the last 30 years, and something speaks to my soul there, but i have to say, northern new mexico is giving it a run for the roses, the state motto is land of enchantment, and it is, the sky is really that blue, the clouds really that puffy white, the hills that verdant green, the streams call to the fly fisherman in me. yes processing presets bring it out, but the data had to be there to begin with, another good example of why you should always shoot raw. this is a chosen place, on the banks of the los pinos river, in the los pinos valley, you probably need the delorme atlas or the us geo maps to find it, it is not visible that i could see on google maps. it is comfortably warm, the sun is shining on my shoulders, ( and on my thin spot on the dome), there can be no wrong, no evil in the world at this moment. this photo, this is how i remember it that day, just like this



and never let it be said that michael does not go all in for his art, that's right he is ankle deep in the los pinos river, and that's right, he's the smart one of us, he has a hat on

 

so we have moved, about half mile or so to the los pinos trestle



and here is another fine example of the difference in eastern vs western photo charters, much of the time eastern charters are the train, right up in your face, everybody jammed into some tight, shoulder to shoulder line side clearing or the edge of a field or a road crossing, western charters are steamscapes, steam trains in big sky open vistas. me, i like both

 

and we moved down the line another mile or so, los pinos tank, we did a couple of runbys here, did not take water, although we could have if necessary, especially since no trains meets were needed anymore today, the eastbound is going the other direction, and the westbound is at least 90 minutes ahead of us at this point.





and one for the road, and that is the track we were on in the background, there is a siding with some mow equipment on it, the line makes a big lazy horseshoe type curve around the valley



and there it is, one of those open gondola cars i spent so much of my day in, committing melanoma assault upon my dome

 

we have moved to tanglefoot curve, the last photo runby of the day, although after grabbing our car at cumbres pass, michael and i car chased a few more locations







and we set up and a bowhunter comes strolling past the photo line, no one even knew he was around until he moved out of the woods, that's him strolling along on the right side of the photo

 

and there is always a crew photo, at least so far on every charter i have been on, here we do it, at tanglefoot curve when they stopped to board us

 

we got off the train at cumbres pass and did a car chase down the mountain to chama and the end of the charter, this is perry's pond, a location not visited before. note they detached #483 and sent it down light to chama, the line is 4% downhill so no extra engine needed now



and here it comes, about 12 minutes behind the light engine move, the main charter train, again at perry's pond

 

so we are back at the s curve spot again, as you can see, at this point in the day we are chasing sun holes in and out of the cloud areas.





and one from the previously visited dalton crossing, for some reason i did not take many here on this day