Personal favorites

Alamosa roundhouse.

December 18, 1961. On the three rail between Alamosa and Antonito.

Not much snow on the ground at Antonito, but a flanger spreader train had preceeded this train over Cumbres, and it was obvious from the snow covered engines at Chamalater that night that there was plenty of snow on Cumbres. A few weeks later OY would make the last DRGW rotary run over Cumbres. Once the train left Antonito it traveled through very isolated country with no paved roads or towns until it reached Chama, 60 miles away over 10,000 foot Cumbres pass. December 18, 1961.

September 1964. With the 488 on the point and 487 helping mid-train, a long westbound train, probably at the limit of 70 cars, is strung out along the steep canyon walls above the Los Pinos River west of Rock Tunnel. Looking at an enlarged version, the caboose looks to have just exited the tunnel. Gordon Chappell and I walked east from Osier hoping to beat the train to Rock Tunnel, and we were probably lucky we didn't make it and got this kind of view of the train instead. The sun was rapidly dropping and by the time we got back to Osier it was dark.

Cumbres turns were often accompanied by a fair number of photographers and just curious tourists, and for the crews it was almost like a public performance. The brakeman smiles for my camera as a family watches one of the engines emerge from the snow shed, while two more photographers do their thing on the right. Retired Alamosa railroader Woody Woodward wrote me, "The brakeman by the switchstand is George Andriko. He was probably the conductor on that trip. He was around so long I think he gave Casey Jones his student trips. When I was in the 1st grade his wife was the Principal of the school and George was the 'old head' when I started on the RR at Alamosa in 1967. He started as a newspaper boy on the trains when he was about 15. His trainman date was around 1917 if I recall correctly." Jimmy Blouch, another retired Rio Grande employee followed up with, "Conductor seniority roster for July 1, 1966 shows: 1. Andriko, G. J. Date entered: 10-12-16 Date promoted: 12-22-22". So we're looking at a trainman with 48 years of experience under his hat. Here is a guy who is number one on the Alamosa trainman's seniority list. He could hold any job in the district that he wanted. Most of the senior guys at Alamosa worked the standard gauge where they didn't have to deal with the cranky old narrow gauge equipment, long hours over slow track, damn steam engines, and so on. But interestingly George apparently must have liked the narrow gauge and its old fashioned ways. I'm sure George never would have thought of himself as a railfan, but... Thanks Woody and Jimmy. Information like that brings an image to life.

Pinky Lynton was a former Rio Grande Southern engineer who went to work on the DRGW after the RGS abandoned. He was a promoted engineer, but was uncomfortable with the relatively large size of the DRGW engines so he preferred to fire. Which is why he is up on the tender taking water at Bondad on the way back from Farmington. January 1960.