Steamscape: Los Pinos Horseshoe Curve. The daily train from Antonito, CO to Chama, NM rounds the horseshoe curve at the north end of the Los Pinos Valley on its slow climb to Cumbres Pass. This former D&RGW line takes lots of serious detours over the course of its 64 mile run in an effort to keep the grades manageable at 4% or less. In this shot, the train is in the midst of a roughly 5-mile detour, having just completed a 2.5 mile run north along the Los Pinos Valley, only to round the sweeping curve you see here and run an equivalent distance back south within plain sight of the tracks it has just traversed. From here, the train is about a 20 minute climb to Cumbres Station and from there, just under an hour's drift down the 4% grade to Chama.
The Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad and the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad are all that remains of the legendary Denver & Rio Grande Western narrow gauge system. Here you'll find some of my favorites from these two beautiful railways.
