Chama

August 28, 2007

We spent Monday night and Tuesday night in Chama, New Mexico. We came here for two reasons – one, our favorite singer/songwriter John Stewart gave a concert here almost exactly ten years ago which neither of us went to (darnit). But second, there’s a narrow gauge railroad that runs from Chama to Antonito, Colorado, and we decided to ride it. It’s called the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad. It was built around 1880 and is still very authentic to that period.



Before we boarded the train, though, we got up at about 4am to watch the total lunar eclipse. We were staying in a little cabin in Chama and set up our cameras in the parking lot. There were lights all around us on all the cabins, but it doesn’t seem to have affected the photos. This was my best one:



When it was over, we went back to bed for a couple hours, and got up again to ride the train.

We boarded in Chama, and took off at about 10am. Here’s the front of the train from the back:



And the back of the train from the front:



And from the inside:



The scenery was beautiful.







At Cumbres Pass, at 10,000 feet, we stopped to fill the water tank. A little later, going around this bend, the pilot cleared the pipes by blowing the steam out. Like this:



Apparently there was a guy named Max Pacheco who worked on the restoration of the tracks in the ‘80s. On his lunch breaks, wherever he was, he would carve his name into a tree. It’s hard to hit a tree from a moving train, so I only got one photo:



This guy followed behind us the entire way. He’s a fire train, and he’s there for the sole purpose of putting out any flames that might be started by the coal that runs the train:








In the olden days, they communicated by telegraph. Occasionally outside the train you’ll see telegraph poles in various stages of disrepair and tangled wires.



With the advent of telephone, the engineer could now communicate with the station. He would stop the train, disembark, and make his phone call here:



These guys were close to the tracks when we came by, and apparently we startled them.





We stopped in Osier for lunch and also to switch engines with the train that started in Antonito. The welcoming committee:



The exchange:









One of the docents stopped in each car for a short concert:









And then we took this “coach” back to Chama.