As the water of the Rio de los Pinos gentle meanders down stream a pair of Rio Grande Baldwin built K-36s march up stream with a 'Chama Steam' photo charter freight near Los Pinos, CO. Both locomo... (more)

By the late 1950s the final chapter had been written for mainline steam in North America, with the happy exception of those retained for excursion and public relation services, lines of dead steam... (more)

Peacefully simmering under a full moon lit sky, Rio Grande K-36 #489 sits at the head of a eastbound manifest at the Chama coaling tower, awaiting a highball to tackle the 10,000' Cumbres Pass on ... (more)

Golden hour switching moves. Having spent the day assisting 2 Cumbres Turns out of Chama, D&RGW Locomotive #489 now begins the task of assembling a 35-car freight that will make the trip t... (more)

Steamscape: The Chama Valley from Windy Point. Nearing the end of her climb to Cumbres Pass, D&RGW 489 rounds Windy Point, with the Chama Valley lit up in fall colors as a back-drop.

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They named this place COLORado for a reason. D&RGW Locomotive #489 takes a cut of stockers and gons past a beautiful grove of aspens, just east of the Highway 17 crossing at Coxo, Colorado... (more)

Completing a Cumbres Turn. The crew of Chama-based helper Locomotive #489 performs a brief inspection and lubrication of their engine in front of the section house at Cumbres Pass (Elevati... (more)

A mighty push. With 36,000 lbs of tractive effort, helper engine DRGW #489 provides a steady, hard push on this 17-car Cumbres Turn, as it claws its way up the 4% grade just above Dalton Cr... (more)

Shortly after sunrise a Historic Transport Preservation (Steam Specials) charter on the C&TS rounds the big curve at Lava, on its way to plow snow farther up the line. In the distance the San Lui... (more)

Sneaking out the Back. Chama, New Mexico. July 2013.

Cleaning the Fire

Steamscape: Tanglefoot Curve. Train 215, the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad's daily westbound out of Antonito, Colorado, slowly ascends the eastern leg of Tanglefoot Curve, with the vast ... (more)

Plowing snow at Big Horn. A Steam Specials charter.

Shortly before sunrise the 489 and a work train make a photo runby at Lava. In the background the San Luis Valley is covered by fog with a few hill tops looking like islands. Our train was heade... (more)

The snow flies and Engineer Max Casias watches intently as he makes another plunge into the deep snow drift, much as the DRGW might have cleared the line 60 years ago. It took five or six such pl... (more)