Friends of the Cumbres & Toltec - FriendsOfCumbresToltec.org

3 Parts, one part uploaded as of Monday Night-

Pardon the occasional cuss word, please.

https://youtu.be/oP2gl56WDR8

Great stuff, Doug. Thanks for doing this.

Part 2:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTsG-71YeGo



Spoiler- This is (apparently) the first 17 miles out of Chama, towards Cumbres, -foiled- by DOT-NM. Unless you know where the ROW is, it's pretty farcical. If you're a hardcore C&TS fan, it's fairly enjoyable. Nice mountain ride.

ROW on the right, to the first crossing, left, to the second. Where Jason ("my man Friday") calls out 9000 feet altitude, the Lobato Trestle is just over the hill, to the left. The gate is, of course, at the state line.

Please pardon the occasion verbal indiscretion.

Hi

Brilliant and thanks for the trip.....now what version of "suite judy blue eyes" was that??? it was a live version...not Woodstock! perhaps 4 way street? $5 for the correct answer.....

Melanie from not so cold London UK

I'll have that #2 clip reloaded in a bit. Had to trim 8 seconds off the end for the bad language. I forget it's recording our speech, too. :-) Our internet up here is atrocious. 6-8 hours to upload each of those film clips. :-)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUG92yTDL1I

A pint, on your next visit. :-)

A question Jonathan asked me has been answered, 489 is sans plow at this point.

Yah, if you look, the steam dome is up, too, so it isn't done yet.

Thanks Doug - excellent stuff - AND Crosby, Stills & Nash ...

did anyone capture Doug on the tipple cam or depot cam of his journey through the yard?

Tom C.

Thank you a lot Doug for posting those trips up and down the various passes and around Chama. For some-one who only sees Chama and the areas around from the web cameras it is most interesting to see what the country is really like. I very much doubt I will ever get over to see all of that so I am most grateful for those long uninterrupted shots from the car.
In the UK especially in the South most transport grinds to a halt with a half inch of snow. Mainly due to us getting much more than that is rare and even then only for a week or two, so we are just not prepared for it, and the Councils and highways folk can't "justify" the outlay on equipment that would sit and rot most of the time.
I was surprised that you never even slackened speed over the worst bits with snow on them but I didn't see the vehicle slide any. I presume you have studded tires or something for those conditions.
Anyway thanks a lot. Maybe some sumer ones later!
Fred

Fred, it's my pleasure, and, I spend five winter months being terribly bored, before spending 7 summer months going flat out like a banshee. I spent several years viewing all this on the cameras as well, before moving here, and am overjoyed to help.

It doesn't seem like it, but I'm doing 50-65 mph (80 kph- 105 kph) up the hill, on (-very-) good winter tires, no studs, with a lot of snow and ice driving experience, including a fair bit of ice road trucking. The truck did slide -just- a bit, after the second grade crossing, but I was ready for it, and you can barely tell.

Well, I guess that you did not have to worry about the cuss words since YouTube took out the audio on the second video. I was wondering if you were really driving that fast, guess you were.

Well, they did, and I put the first one back up, and, my apologies for the impropriety! They wrecked it by muting the sound track! I know that road pretty well at this point, probably about 100 trips a year back and forth. We put 13K on the company truck last year. I'm in my own truck though, for these excursions. The company truck is a -tank-, and tows like a dream, but does not do at all well in the snow, despite being 4X4.

CST&Y...thank you -I was right.......donation made to the web cam

I have been there so I have an appreciation of the layout. However we really appreciate the road trip. We have no idea of that amount of snow.....look forward to another trip perhaps

thanks

Melanie

Bottom of Cumbres to Los Pinos, snow at the Cumbres grade crossing about 8' deep.

OCD warning, crack in the windshield.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRIlI7k ... e=youtu.be

Nice work Doug. Looks like you have had some significant snow melt but a lot to go.
Thanks for posting the series.

What I like most, is thinking about how hard the train crews must have worked to push through that snow a hundred years ago.

Nicely done, Doug. Thanks.

Doug, good job and thanks for describing the points of interest. Sharon might be interested in knowing that at 2017-03-12 13:00, Colorado Snotel registered 104 inches of snow at Cumbres Trestle.

Rick

It is still deep up there, thanks Rick.

Enjoyed your tour rides! Hope to see more again......Excellent videos!