Farmington & Chama
June 18-22, 2014
Thursday, June 19
Farmington to Chama
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With my work project wrapped up, I headed east to Chama. East? Man, that was weird. Chama is always north and west from me. Got to see some real pretty country that I hadn't had the privilege to see yet. Every time I'm out there, it gets harder to return to the concrete jungle of Houston. Even though I live as far from town as I can, practically speaking, I work in Downtown and deal with traffic and mass crowds every day. I long for wide, open spaces... |
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As I left my hotel to head to the office that morning, I crossed over the old Rio Grande branch. It ran down this alley. |
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That afternoon I left Farmington and raced east with thoughts of coal smoke and a Foster's smothered burrito in my head... |
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This is on the Jicarilla Apache Reservation. Absolutely beautiful country. |
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In Dulce, I got a few photos of the stock cars that the Rio Grande left behind in 1970. |
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These poor cars better get some TLC soon. |
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Being in Dulce, I made the requisite trip over to Navajo for some quick photos. |
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This is a quiet, peaceful location... and little imagination is required to see and hear a train rolling through on it's way to Durango. I could almost smell the coal smoke... |
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My rental car. As dorky as it was, it had some pep and gets better gas mileage than my truck. |
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Partying shot from Dulce as I continued east to Chama |
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New highway alignment at Monero Canyon. Part of the RoW was obliterated in this project. |
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Final push into Chama... |
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484 was on the old mainline to Durango and turning cars on the wye. A nice west wind blew some perfume (coal smoke) right towards me. Naturally I rolled the window down and soaked it in. Ahh... I was home... |
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Making the requisite drive through the yard |
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Caught 484 setting up the train for the next day. This procedure is now history. The tail of the wye has been extended and the entire train can now be turned saving time and effort each afternoon. |
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There are four locomotives of three classes here: K36 #487, K27 #463, K36 #489, and C18 #315 |
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The Friend's boxcars have been moved around the yard revealing the wall of the Roundhouse for the first time in years. I gotta say, it looks great! |
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Firebox on Rotary OY |
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The mouth of OY |
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Four locomotives from the other side: 487, 463, 489, & 315 |
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Cumbres Pass at Sunset After checking in at The Hotel, I went up to Cumbres for the sunset. I've wanted to do this for years but never seem to have the time. So, I MADE time on this trip. Sure was purdy. |
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| The reservoir in the hill for the water plug was overflowing. That's a good sign. |
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| The water was flowing down the hill towards the Section House |
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Cumbres local living at the Section House |
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During the drive back down the hill to Chama, I saw at least 50 deer. Maybe 60 or 70. I've never seen so many in such a small area before. It was crazy. And, of course, they had no fear of me so I kept the speed WAY down. |
