Cumbres & Toltec K-36 No. 487 sits with Rotary OY and water car No. 0472 beneath the coaling tower at Chama, New Mexico, on the night of February 29, 2020. Built by Baldwin in 1925 for the Rio Grande, the narrow gauge Mikado, along with sister K-36 No. 484, pushed Rotary OY up the steep grade east of town toward Cumbres Pass, plowing snow over the border to Cresco, Colorado, on this day. In the past, the purist in me would have preferred a Rio Grande logo on the flanks of No. 487’s tender, but on this 50th year anniversary of the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad, it seems most apropos. Besides, the K-36 has now worn Cumbres & Toltec lettering in some form or another longer than it did Rio Grande!
A continuously growing album of photos that IMHO reveal the awesome and seldom-seen beauty of the railroad world from the dimming of day to dawn's early light! From dusk to dawn, trains roll on! (I'm still finding gems of sunset-to-sunrise surprises!)
