Friends of the Cumbres & Toltec - FriendsOfCumbresToltec.org

Early morning in the yard. The 463 MOW Extra leaves for Antonito after the 216 was reported to me last night. Looks like that train is assembled waiting south of tipple. Wil update if I can before leaving on 216.

Larry Gibson wrote: Wil update if I can before leaving on 216.

You riding 216 today?

Not directly related to the railroad, but noticed this CDoT cam shot looking toward Mt. San Antonio.

Sharon Evans wrote:Not directly related to the railroad, but noticed this CDoT cam shot looking toward Mt. San Antonio.

Nice capture! Some of the morning and evening views on the CDOT cams have been really good of late in the lighting.

To answer your other question, yes Larry G is riding 216 today, through to Antonito.

The MOW extra train is expecting to leave at 8am - looks like they are hooking everything up now - might be a bit after 8, time is directly from the engineer, per Mr. Gibson.

With 487 down at the water tank, 484 at the ash pit, and 463 moving around with the MOW train I just got a message from Larry G -- "This is insane I don't have enough eyes" I think he's having to much fun!!!!

Right now 3 engines working in the yard. 484 just came to the ash pit, another at the tank and 463 in south yard.

Better shot as 487 backs down the main, 484 is at the ash pit and 463 still down in south yard.

Where is Larry G. located, wondered if could see him in a cam.

Sharon Evans wrote:Where is Larry G. located, wondered if could see him in a cam.

Dark blue jacket right in the North cam view. Lighter blue by the paint shed I believe is one of his sons.

Good, then we got them in both of the above shots.

Problems with capture again. Anyway here is the caboose of the derrick train passing our own Larry G at the paint shed.

I'll add this one in - dual cam with 463's whistle blowing. As usual, I'll have all the cam videos at the end of the day. Quite an eventful morning so far!

Larry G with his tickets for the ride today.

Looked like there are people riding the derrick train.

216 Departure this morning, with Larry G waving from the open gondola.

There is a great shot of the 463 and its train on the C&TS Facebook page, no credits as to who shot it but was at the 'S' curve below 17 near the state line.

Every day is a great day to be in Chama. Wish I was there!

Mark Sigmon wrote:Every day is a great day to be in Chama. Wish I was there!

I think it's safe to say a lot of us agree with you Mark!!!

Adding in some of today's cam videos early as things may get busy again later.
10-01-15 MOW Train is assembled and readied to head to Antonito


10-01-15 MOW Train Departure



10-01-15 Train 216 Departure - with a stop before exiting the yard.

484 has come out and is headed light east. He seemed to be in a hurry to get moving.

Well, don't know where the 484 went but he's back and at the tank.

Just dawned on me that the Goose must have gone through to Antonito yesterday since it was not in the yard this morning.

215 is showing on the CDoT cam at 1554 MDT so is almost an hour late. Looks like one of the buses is up there so wonder if they are taking off people going back to Antonito. Another thought, maybe what 484 was doing when it hightailed east was a possible rescue mission that was cancelled.

Well 484 pulled 489 out of the house and down to the tank for a drink.

Now we await a report from Larry G. as to whether 216 was delayed into Antonito.

Sharon Evans wrote:215 is showing on the CDoT cam at 1554 MDT so is almost an hour late. Looks like one of the buses is up there so wonder if they are taking off people going back to Antonito. Another thought, maybe what 484 was doing when it hightailed east was a possible rescue mission that was cancelled.

Bus and train are gone in the next capture, so you may well be right Sharon.

About 30 minutes after I saw that 215 was late and a bus was parked at Cumbres, I saw a bus coming down 17 and now there are people milling around. Wonder if there were 2 buses up there to take people who had to get going to both ends.

488 finally gets 215 in an hour late. Sweet late afternoon light with the changing trees. When we shoot in this light we call it "the golden hour".

Here's 215 Return video. I agree Sharon the "golden hour" lighting has been fantastic of late, both morning and afternoons.

The story of lateness today - from Mr. Gibson. Pictures will be posted in his day 2 thread shortly. Also this text will go in there too, just posting here to answer the question for Sharon and others that follow this thread. This is his writing -

Yes, a great adventure. In a nut shell so you will understand pics to follow.

After we crossed 17 the brakes set. They got out and inspected. Thought it was a bad car valve. Got going again but above Tanglefoot curve they set again. 90 minutes and 4 resets and bleeding lines we were still only at the bottom of Tanglefoot curve!!!! They called Chama after deciding a valve in 487 compressor was bad for parts. Train limbed to Los Pinos tank for water, then moved to the Los Pinos siding where shop crew and GM would meet the train with compressor valve parts and concessions to pacify disgruntled tourists. We then limped to Osier for lunch. They held 463X there and swapped engines. 487X followed us to Antinito arriving after 6:00. The train with 463 blew out the brakes above Lava tank and they got excited the the 487X was too close behind:) 3-4 minutes as we could see it many times in the distance. Got back here well after dark as u saw.

I'm trying to get refreshed now so the pics will come later. For us railfans a fun day of adventure, for the leaf peepers not so good.

To add one note to the above, I saw on the webcams that the Antonito buses got back at approximately 7:30pm.

Obviously a great job by the railroad crews to hold everything together, get it fixed, and move onto the next day. Breakdowns like this occur - never a nice thing, but the best maintenance in the world can still have problems. Thanks to the crews for all they do to keep this railroad running.

Larry Sullivan wrote:The story of lateness today - from Mr. Gibson. Pictures will be posted in his day 2 thread shortly. Also this text will go in there too, just posting here to answer the question for Sharon and others that follow this thread. This is his writing -

Yes, a great adventure. In a nut shell so you will understand pics to follow.

After we crossed 17 the brakes set. They got out and inspected. Thought it was a bad car valve. Got going again but above Tanglefoot curve they set again. 90 minutes and 4 resets and bleeding lines we were still only at the bottom of Tanglefoot curve!!!! They called Chama after deciding a valve in 487 compressor was bad for parts. Train limbed to Los Pinos tank for water, then moved to the Los Pinos siding where shop crew and GM would meet the train with compressor valve parts and concessions to pacify disgruntled tourists. We then limped to Osier for lunch. They held 463X there and swapped engines. 487X followed us to Antinito arriving after 6:00. The train with 463 blew out the brakes above Lava tank and they got excited the the 487X was too close behind:) 3-4 minutes as we could see it many times in the distance. Got back here well after dark as u saw.

I'm trying to get refreshed now so the pics will come later. For us railfans a fun day of adventure, for the leaf peepers not so good.

Interesting situation. The fact that 463 also had a brake blowout would lead me to think the problem was in the coaches. It sounds very similar to the situation earlier this summer with the Friends meeting and dinner at the Pavillion. As we were leaving, the last coach's brakes locked up. I believe the crew cut out the brakes on the last coach and we started down the hill. We were about at Cosco when there was a pop similar to glad hands separating and the brakes applied. I was in the gon and the sound appeared to come from behind us. The crew was able to find the problem and work out a fix so we made it down the hill, albeit well after the scheduled arrival. Fortunately it was a pleasant evening/night for a train ride. In Larry's case it was fortunate that 463X was running ahead and held at Osier.

Thanks again for the insight Pete, your descriptions are most welcome!