Friends of the Cumbres & Toltec - FriendsOfCumbresToltec.org

There is a fire in northern new Mexico and southern colorado that has shut down the durango and silverton train until at least june 10. I hope that does not shut down cumbres and toltec also

fire is not in New Mexico. It is N. of Durango Co.

Tom C.

evacualted Phillmont scout ranch and town on commeron NM

Claude Wilkerson wrote:evacualted Phillmont scout ranch and town on commeron NM

Claude, Philmont and Cimarron are several hundred miles east of Chama and about the same distance from Antonito. Most people believe the scout ranch is located in the barren desert. Not the case. Lots of evergreens, fish and bear surround the headquarters. Cimarron is a fair distance away from Phulmont.. Agree with your concerns.

Here are some photographs taken by Roger Hogan outside of Cimarron. Great pictures and gives an idea to the nature of the landscape nearby.

viewtopic.php?f=116&t=3372&p=13896&hilit=buffalo&sid=823bb0e1b06df1e41e98ef6cda551ffd#p13891

You might find this picture of Philmont Boy Scouts hiking interesting:



Rick

Tom Casper wrote:fire is not in New Mexico. It is N. of Durango Co. Tom C.

We're talking two different fires here. The New Mexico fire, started with a dry lightening strike last Tuesday, smoldered until Thursday and then exploded. It's currently at around 30,000 acres and 0% contained. https://www.abqjournal.com/1179871/ute- ... acres.html

The Colorado fire, north of Durango is only 1,100 acres or so but much closer to major civilization. It does not bode well that the fire was reportedly started "near the train tracks."https://durangoherald.com/articles/226426-wildfire-breaks-out-north-of-durango so I'm sure the USFS is keeping a close watch on the C&TS as well.

Having just returned from CH/AN and watched the two fire suppression speeders follow the train (over M'Day weekend they extinguished several small fires started by cinders), I'm wondering of the D&S has the same rapid-response team as the C&TS. I haven't ridden the D&S in years so I'm not sure how they work on that.

Perhaps the C&TS could offer discount tickets to passengers skunked on the D&S. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink.

I just looked at the weather forecast (and the Chama Yard Cam) for Chama and Antonito: LOTS of rain, which is good for the fire threat but nasty for the weekend charter trains. While I sympathize with the photographers, I'm always happy to see any liquid fall out of the sky this summer.

Indeed - with apologies to those riding today, can't be happier to see wet roads and tracks on almost all of the web cameras. Hopefully the (again) double-headed fire crew will have an easy day and a dry-ish ride up and back.

The Ute Park Fire that has been threatening Ute Park and Cimarron (and Philmont Scout Ranch) the past several days is approx. 95 miles southeast of Chama. Like Chama, the fire area got rain Sunday, but the incident management team said Saturday they expected dangerous fire weather conditions to return Monday. This region isn't out of the woods yet as far as fire weather is concerned.

Chris James wrote:Having just returned from CH/AN and watched the two fire suppression speeders follow the train (over M'Day weekend they extinguished several small fires started by cinders), I'm wondering of the D&S has the same rapid-response team as the C&TS. I haven't ridden the D&S in years so I'm not sure how they work on that.

Perhaps the C&TS could offer discount tickets to passengers skunked on the D&S. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink.

The D&S has fire speeders just like the C&TS. I'm not sure if every train is followed or just the last one of the day? They normally run 1-3 trains from Durango to Silverton per day with a 45 minute gap between each and if a 4th is needed, it's run as a second section of the 3rd train and runs 15 minutes behind. Most if not all trains also have fire fighting equipment aboard including water tanks and pumps in modified boxcars.

Plus the D&S has been hiring a water bucket-equipped helicopter to check the line every day this and last summer.

As for discount ticket for turned away D&S passengers, I heard a strong rumor that such a thing has arranged and I'm sure well see official word from the C&TS soon.

Greg

[quote="Chris James"

Having just returned from CH/AN and watched the two fire suppression speeders follow the train (over M'Day weekend they extinguished several small fires started by cinders), I'm wondering of the D&S has the same rapid-response team as the C&TS. I haven't ridden the D&S in years so I'm not sure how they work on that.[/quote]

Are the two track cars some distance apart and how much of the line are they covering?