Friends of the Cumbres & Toltec - FriendsOfCumbresToltec.org

Thursday morning finds the locomotives sleeping away under fall colors and a little more snow in the high country. The Saturday charter should generate some contrasting photos.

Well 488 has gotten a full coal load this morning so maybe its going to do the switching.

The switching has begun.

The MoW cars are being put into the north yard next to the spreader.

Little off but LaManga looks great.

Thanks Sharon! I'm tied up the rest of the afternoon and will look forward to what happens.

463 is out for the daily service.

488 has taken the tank cars and moved them over to the north yard track with the MoW equipment and come back to south yard with the pipe loads. The tank cars are placed next to the Gramps oil loader.

After picking up the 2 box cars 488 shoved the entire string into south yard.

I do not know if it is at my or Chama end, but the stream keeps freezing up.

Lets pretend that this is 216 leaving for Antonito and not just the move of the cars.

After getting a scoop of coal, 484 is now having its fire cleaned as 488 continues to switch in the south yard carrying the entire passenger consist while doing so.

The passenger consist has been broken down with the coaches in north yard and the rest in south yard 2.

Looks like 488 is getting the weekend freight ready now.

489 has come out of its daily service as 488 continues to switch in south yard.

A nice shot of what is in north yard now.

Don't know if they have knocked off for lunch but I have to go out now. Hope Larry S has good video running for the rest of the afternoon.

Sure do have video Sharon! For now I'll just add a still of a long freight, now set on the main.

463 as well as the loco that was in front of her (484?)now heading into the South yard and headed for the wye after backing through the shop.

489 now also has backed into the shop. -- And headed back to the wye. Have to wonder what they are up to. 488 still sits on the main with the freight.

Well this is quite odd. All 3 locos went to the wye and now coming back tender first to be spotted in front of the shop.

They could be getting ready for the 5 loco photo opportunity I supposed. Still I haven't seen sign of 487. 488 seems to be headed for the wye as well.

[quote="Larry Sullivan"]Well this is quite odd. All 3 locos went to the wye and now coming back tender first to be spotted in front of the shop.

Larry,
It does seem to make sense that they could be getting ready for the 5 loco photo opportunity. Do you recall any of the previous pictures where they were facing South? It certainly is unusual to see all of the locomotives from their backside at once.
John

John Hamman wrote:

Larry Sullivan wrote:Well this is quite odd. All 3 locos went to the wye and now coming back tender first to be spotted in front of the shop.

Larry,
It does seem to make sense that they could be getting ready for the 5 loco photo opportunity. Do you recall any of the previous pictures where they were facing South? It certainly is unusual to see all of the locomotives from their backside at once.
John

Yes - the 5 loco shot back in 1992 was facing South - I'm not sure I should post it here, it's not my photo - I'll try to find a link to it on the website.

Here's a link to that picture - http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=201159

I'm starting to work on the video edits for today, saw this as I was working - thought I'd do a quick timelapse vid - 30 seconds, clouds/fog cover then uncover the distant mountains on the North cam. Thought it looked interesting. And yes 488 moves will be coming real time in the upcoming video review to be posted in a little while.

Well it does seem odd with the tenders of the engines facing the south tipple cam. Looked at the stills of the long freight that was made up and guess it is on south yard 1 at this time since it is not very visible from the cams.

It is still snowing up at Cumbres, with this the riders on the freight should have some good shots of snow.

The final string which was pushed into the South yard on track 1 was around 30 + cars long

Jim Reynolds wrote:The final string which was pushed into the South yard on track 1 was around 30 + cars long

I counted 30 cars as well Jim - consist is 6 stock cars, flat, pipe, flat, pipe, flat, 7 box, 3 high gon, 6 open gon and 3 caboose. Videos uploading now, as soon as they are processed they'll be posted. Not much longer.

Videos of the day -

10-22-15 488 Readies for switching duties


10-22-15 Switching for the upcoming charter. Switching took place over a couple hours, some of the highlights shown here.


10-22-15 The final consist after switching. There were several other switching moves mostly out of camera view before getting to the final consist. Also of note the whistles of the other three locomotives as they were turning at the wye. 489 appears to have gone to the back of the shop.

Larry Sullivan wrote:Here's a link to that picture - http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=201159

Larry,
Thanks for the link to the pic!
John

My thanks as well to Larry for the 5-loco photo. As noted elsewhere, we'll need 487 to have all five current locomotives for a "glamor shot" and they'll need to move some more cars around to free up five contiguous tracks to line them up. Fun to watch how everything progresses! (And wasn't it fun watching that freight pull together yesterday!!!)

Ah ha! And now we have 487 in the yard, backwards, with two flat cars "in push" - 5 under steam!