A couple of out-of-town visitors are present in the Cumbres & Toltec yard in Chama, New Mexico. D&RGW C-18 2-8-0 315 is here for a five year part-time stint on loan from owner Durango Railroad Historical Society. The consolidation is temporarily lettered for its original number, 425, which it carried from the time the Rio Grande acquired it from the defunct Florence & Cripple Creek in 1917 until it was renumbered 315 in 1924.
The other visitor to Chama is Rio Grande Southern “Galloping Goose” number 5, in town for a series of fall foliage excursions. Normally a resident of Delores, Colorado, the goose is loaned out by owner Galloping Goose Historical Society of Delores for operation on the C&TS and D&S at different times of the year.
The 315 is no stranger to Chama, having spent a portion of its career on the Alamosa Division. The goose, on the other hand, never arrived in Chama on the rails, but over the highway. Nonetheless, , these two have probably met many times at the RGS/D&RGW interchange in Durango, where the 315 was stationed as a switcher in the late 1940’s.
