I started my first morning in Chama with the snacks I had bought yesterday as there is no breakfast restaurant in the town. The second of the five-day K36 100th anniversary event featured a four-hour authentic freight train experience from Chama to Cumbres Pass and return. This was not part of the three-day charter; but open to anyone who wanted to feel the earth-shaking might of a K-36 locomotive as it conquered the steepest narrow gauge railroad grade in America. This authentic freight train experience recreates the challenging journey these workhorses made daily during their century of service, offering a rare glimpse into real mountain railroading.
I chose not to ride this, but to chase it. A fellow charter participant, Josh, and I drove out to the Jukes Tree where we met most of the group.
Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad 2-8-2 487, nee Denver and Rio Grande Western 487, built by Baldwin in 1925, passing the ponderosa pine named for Fred Jukes, an accomplished photographer.
Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad 2-8-2 487, running out of the narrows, Milepost 342.00.
The special train was at Hamilton's Point, Milepost 334.5.
Passing Windy Point, Milepost 331.0, where the grade is up to four percent. Since the road and the tracks were no longer in close proximity, Josh and I, and most of the others, drove back to Chama. It was an uneventful rest of the day and I went to Subway for dinner then turned in early in preparation for tomorrow morning's start.
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