Layouts of the rich and famous - David Popp's Naugatuck Valley Railroad

Most model railroaders, especially those living near Lake Michigan, know that Trainfest was held over this past weekend. While I plan to post a story with notes from my discussions with the manufacturers and views of the layouts that were there, this post will take some time to show you an extra tour that a friend of mine was able to arrange for us. Friday night, after setup, several of us were invited on a private layout tour to see David Popp's beautiful N scale layout, the Naugatuck Valley Railroad. David is currently Managing Editor for Model Railroader magazine, and his layout has been featured a few times within its pages (I guess rank really does have it's privilege). Let's take a look at some of the photos from the tour...

As with the other posts to this site, you can click on the images for a slightly larger version. All of these photos were done handheld with available light, so please excuse the narrow depth of field here. I'll have to see if I can arrange some time to return with my tripod and macro lenses for a longer photo session.

I don't have an electronic version of the layout's track plan (you can look it up in the April 2006 Model Railroader or in Great Model Railroads 2007), but there was this model of the current layout on the workbench. In our discussions during the evening, David mentioned that he wanted to build a small OO layout based on British prototypes, and that's what you can see here in the lower left portion of the model. But, since the benchwork hasn't been started yet, we didn't get to see anything more on that yet. The rest of the photos here are strictly the N scale layout.

The clock tower of Waterbury station rises well above the benchwork, creating an instant focal point for visitors to the layout's main yard.

A small town in Connecticut on the opposite end of the layout from Waterbury.

Commuters wait on the platform for the morning ride to Waterbury.

A lot of the layouts that I visit have some industries named after the layout builders' friends. Sometimes the names are a little more obvious to avid model railroaders, but the stories behind the industry names are often just as appropriate. I didn't ask about the story behind this industry, but I know another editor at the magazine whose name resembles this...

This layout was built for operations and there were car card racks like this all around the layout. Next to most of the boxes was also a small shelf where operators could set cards as they worked the industries, thus avoiding the need to place any object on top of the layout itself just to get a free hand for switching moves.

When the layout is described as fully scenicked, it's definitely true. Most of the scenes had extra details, but some details were a little more obvious to the casual observer. I think I saw more bicyclists on this layout than I've seen on all the other layouts I've visited combined.

Well, there are some of the better photos that I was able to get by handholding my camera. If I ever get back there with my macro gear, I'll be sure to post an update. I hope you were as inspired by this layout through photos as I was from visiting it. Until next time, happy modeling!

Layout pics from Trainfest 2007

It's November again, and in Wisconsin, that means it's time for Trainfest. This year, the show took place on November 10 and 11, and stayed open a little longer both days. It may have been the warmer weather or it may have been all the billboards that I saw around town and on the way to the show, but this year's attendance set a new Trainfest record with almost 21,000 tickets sold (and that's in addition to all of the vendors, exhibitors and volunteers who were working the show). I was there with the Capitol City "N"Gineers again this year and I found some time to wander around and get some photos and talk to the manufacturers. Today I'll show you some of the layouts and people that were there...

First of all, I have to apologize for not having the club names. I neglected to pick up a show program so I don't know who was where, but the photos are still fun to look at.

I started my layout photos with looking at the kids around our own layout. Sometimes you can get some really fantastic reactions from them when they first notice Thomas pulling a train past them. I didn't capture what I was looking for there, but my wife told me to turn around and look at this guy...

There seems to be a tradition forming of some exhibitors coming to the show in costume (like those three railroad priests that I showed from a year or two ago). This hobo was there both days, but I only saw the bull he's talking to in this image on Saturday.

Once I started wandering around, one of the first layouts I looked at was an HO scale layout that was set up for operations. The modules were built such that they could be arranged in different configurations, which meant that some interchanges led straight off the end of the benchwork. In most cases, the layout operators parked a train or made some other visual block so the train crews wouldn't run off the layout by mistake. This UP motorcar was one such view block; I didn't notice that the front truck was fully derailed until I looked at the image on my computer screen...

There were layouts there in all of the major modeling scales that are popular in the US, so I then looked at a couple G scale layouts. The G scalers always seem to find room for humorous scenes on their layouts, like the fate of this unfortunate lumberjack who didn't quite close the door all the way...

But, there were some G scale modelers who were quite serious in their model craftsmanship. On the same layout as the lumberjack shown above, there was a beautifully modeled Milwaukee Road Hiawatha train built to scale. The entire train was modeled from the E unit on the front to this model of Cedar Rapids on the rear. Because the cars were built to scale lengths, however, they had a little trouble negotiating the curve coming out of the yard onto a bridge and had to be tilted slightly to clear the bridge beam...

A little farther on and I stopped at another HO scale layout. I'm always looking for people in the model scenes that I photograph, and this layout had a few in prototypical poses. After recreating a shot that I did a couple years ago in a higher resolution and in RAW format (I still need to process the latest shot of that scene), I found this scene...

Well, I may not have gotten good shots of the kids around our layout, but found one when I viewed the 3-rail layout at the other end of the hall. I had to wait a while for the train to come around this huge layout again, but I think it was worth the wait...

On the way back to our layout, I stopped at another G scale layout where there were younger railroaders working hard on the line's doodlebug while a couple of older railroaders were hardly working at their checkers game.

Right next to that scene was the engine maintenance shed at Copper Junction, elevation 41 inches...

Finally, I got back to our Ntrak layout where one of our other members asked if I would take a few photos of his trains on the layout. After taking a few of his Amtrak train at one end, I shot his Christmas train going through the canyon module at the other end...

But, my favorite shot from the weekend was back at the first layout that I looked at where I saw the UP motorcar pictured above. The layout was lower than others in the hall, but I wonder how many people noticed this figure and child on the station platform waving to all the trains as they go by.

One day along the Mississippi River in Wisconsin

On June 6, 2009, I spent a day at one of my favorite railfanning spots along the Mississippi River.  The rail line on the eastern shore of the Mississippi River in Wisconsin was originally built by predecessors of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad.  Today, the line is part of BNSF's mainline between Chicago and Seattle.  On the days that I've railfanned this line, there have been about one train per hour, so there's plenty of action to see for a patient railfan.  While this location didn't produce many artistic photos on this trip (it was colder and rainier than on previous trips), I was able to get a number of reference photos of the equipment that passed me.

One word of caution for readers on a dialup connection, however.  This post is very long compared to the rest of the site.  There are about 30 images below, each about 50 kilobytes.

A friend of mine owns a house in Glen Haven (map), one of the small towns south of Prairie du Chien, and once a year he invites his model railroad operating crew to the house for a day at trackside.  I like to hang out on the upper balcony facing the tracks so I can get an unobstructed view of the trains that pass by.  The trains usually go through at somewhere between 40 and 60 mph, so panning is the order of the day for good photos of the equipment.  Here are some of the better shots that I was able to get that day.

Intermodal trains are very common on the mainline.  While most of them have cars and containers that all look alike, this one had one of those open-frame containers on its lower level.

The B end of BNSF 237823 had two containers from Yang Ming and a piece from a graffitist on its side.  I thought the different size type and two styles of logos on the two containers was interesting, and the lower container included the company's URL.

BNSF still has plenty of red and silver locomotives in operation as evidenced by C44-9W number 733.  But it seems like every one that I see in this livery always has that one orange box on the fireman's side.  According to other photos, this one has had that box since at least 2001.

Here's a modern high-cube boxcar lettered for DWC.  That's the reporting mark for Duluth, Winnipeg & Pacific Railway, a subsidiary of Canadian National Railway (thus the CN logo in the corner) in northern Minnesota.

Another CN purchase in the 1990s was Wisconsin Central.  Here's WC 22204 with a couple graffitist pieces.  Notice the reflective tape was applied on top of the graffiti, which indicates the paint's age on the car.  The tape, which is also applied to the DWC car above, is intended to help car and truck drivers see trains at grade crossings after dark.

Coupled to the WC car was a slightly older CN boxcar, this time with CN reporting marks.

My favorite kinds of trains to see are the manifest trains, those with many different types of cars in them.  This train had a few tank cars as well, inlcuding this one, SHPX 206008.  If it looks swaybacked, your eyes are working right.  The straight lines of the car's livery tell us that this car was built with a sag in the middle to help with unloading it from a spout on the bottom of the car.  Also, notice the "freshman stripe" on the adjoining tank car, caused by dirt and grime kicked up from the wheels of the car and the cars that it has been coupled to in the past.  This is a detail that I discussed in a previous prototype weathering study last September.

Another way to model the effects of graffiti is with paint patches from graffiti clean up efforts, as evidenced by BN 461461.  The patches could be applied to the model by plain colored decal film or masked and airbrushed.  Also notice that the hatch covers on the top of the car are a brighter shade of green than the car side.  One of the first Modeler's Moments that I posted suggested that the hatches could be painted different colors to show that they had been replaced.

Coupled to the BN car was another BNSF predecessor car, ATSF 313611.  I managed to catch a rain drop falling in front of my lens as this car passed me.  The fading on this car can be modeled by a very light overspray of the car's main paint color.

Graffiti isn't always vulgar and unreadable, sometimes it's quite simple like on ATSF 311646.  It looks like whoever left this message also painted over the hazmat placard on the side of the car, making me wonder if this tag applied by a railroad employee or someone involved in loading or unloading this car.  This hopper used the Santa Fe circle-and-cross logo while the previous car used the name in large type.  It's still quite common to see both styles of this fallen flag in operation, but as I've said many times before, get your pictures now because these cars could get repainted or even scrapped as early as tomorrow.

Shorter hoppers were also on the rails that day, as we can see with ATSF 350320.  This one had the large lettering on the side, was still clear of graffiti (at least on this side of the car) and the lettering was still plainly visible.  Notice also the round hatch covers on the roof.

One more Santa Fe covered hopper before we move on to other cars.  ATSF 315735 is also fairly clear of graffiti.  But also notice the center panels where the railroad's name is painted is also not getting streaked from the rain.  That's due to the little eave at the top of those panels that redirects the runoff from the roof to adjoining panels.  By putting the railroad name there, it doesn't get as strongly weathered as the rest of the car.

We add another car type to the list of those we've seen with this gondola, BN 665863.  The lettering is almost completely obscured by the rust, but BN's cascade green is unmistakeable.

BNSF 5262, an ES44DC, leads the next westbound train that we saw.  I almost left this picture out because it isn't focused properly, but take a look at the weathering on the side of the fuel tank.  There's a bit of white grime from between the two air tanks that flows down the side of the fuel tank.  So, now you have another place to use that white weathering chalk.

The first car on that next train was TBOX 665790.  Unlike the boxcars we looked at in other trains, this one had a few graffitist pieces on it.  But, like one of the CN cars, the reporting data and reflective stripes were applied or repainted over the graffiti.

Another tank car owned by a leasing company, GATX this time.  The dark lettering on the top half of the car has faded almost to white.  The shelf couplers are quite obvious on both ends of the car.

It looks like this tank car's outer layer was made from one continuous sheet of steel wrapped in a coil around the car.  It reminds me of the candy cane tank car that Lionel put out a while ago (and there is a prototype for one painted in a candy cane livery, I just can't find a photo of it right now).

With this car, we've actually got a pretty good idea of what it's carrying.  Written right on the outside of the car is "CORN SYRUP ONLY" and the Midwest Corn Producers logo reinforces that to our model building eyes.

The graffitists hit this car too, but this time notice that the piece was done in a way that it avoids painting over the reporting marks on the car.  The graffitists have learned that their pieces stay on the cars longer if they don't cover the marks, so this practice is becoming more common.  I only wish the railroads would be as colorful in their paint selections as these graffitists.

Okay, we're back to covered hoppers again.  This one is a bit newer than the others we've seen, even carrying the new BNSF ("swoosh" or "power bar" or whatever you want to call it) logo.

With this car we move off the BNSF again, but not very far.  Mike Haverty, the current president of KCS, was the last president of the Santa Fe, serving from 1989 to 1995.  He is responsible for the re-emergence of the silver and red livery on locomotives, and now as president of KCS, reintroduced the Southern Belle livery there.

Yup, another BN covered hopper, but this time, without the graffiti clean up.  There's an interesting little piece under the BN logo on the right showing a few dice, but the rest appear to be quick little "I was here" tags.

Open cars can really be a treat to see at trackside.  This car full of freshly cut logs was tucked between a covered hopper and boxcar.  Notice that each of the three bundles is banded to help prevent load shifting.  Also notice that the car floor is cut away between the ends down to just the center sill to reduce the car's tare weight.

Gondolas sometimes carry covers too.  This one was probably loaded with newly milled steel on its way to a factory as a raw material.  The covers help to reduce the amount of rust that collects on the new steel before it is used.

IBT is the reporting mark for the International Bridge and Terminal Company, which is now the Canadian subsidiary of Minnesota, Dakota & Western Railway.  The MD&W's chief customers are paper and lumber companies around the International Falls area, so it's easy to imagine this car loaded with newsprint heading for a press somewhere.

BNSF 5314 was the second unit on the next westbound train.  That patck of primer on the side caught my eye immediately.  Judging by its location on the locomotive, I would guess that something went wrong with the prime mover and it spewed something all over the side from the exhaust stack.  Maybe it blew a gasket and threw oil all out the stack?  Whatever the cause, this would be a simple detail to add to any model with some blank colored decal film or a masked off area that is airbrushed with a primer color.

This is more like the kind of tank car that I am now used to seeing.  It's a generic car that appears to be carrying a flammable liquid today, based on the placard color visible above the truck on the right hand end of the car.

The last train that we saw before heading home included more fallen flag freight cars, like BN 468397.  This car had fairly light weathering and could easily be modeled.

The FRED on the last train was hung on this car, TILX 32914.  It looks like the graffitist who left this piece used his own white can of spray paint to reproduce the reporting mark himself.

With that, we'll leave this look at trains passing Glen Haven, Wisconsin, on the BNSF, June 6, 2009.

Trainfest 2006 preview

So I'm here in Milwaukee to setup for Trainfest. We got our NTrak layout up and fully assembled, we just need to test out the electricical in the morning, but the real news here is the manufacturers section. I got a quick look around there and talked to a few of them today. Read on for some news and initial thoughts...

First, I have to apologize for the lack of pictures on this post. My laptop couldn't read the CF card in my USB adapter for some reason. Anyway, all the big manufacturers, and a few of the smaller ones, are here. I stopped at some of the larger manufacturers today. The top story for this show is that deLuxe Innovations is becoming DeLuxe Innovations. The move that was mentioned earlier is due to the whole company being sold. The reps at their table today had printed copies of the press release explaining that the company's new owner is Dave Ferrari, formerly of Atlas Model Railroad Company. Steve and Craig are sticking around, and they will be joined by Wayne Shortman, also from Atlas. The company headquarters is moving from California to Whippany, New Jersey, while the sales office will remain in Illinois. The press release doesn't say anything about George's position with the new company, but in just walking by their booth, I overheard rumblings that he will have less of an influence; I don't know all the details there, but I plan to go back tomorrow to talk to them some more. The good news for us modelers is that all of the existing preorders are being transferred to the new owners for fulfillment, and they had several new models on display (photos to come in a later post). Speaking of Atlas, they were showing off test shots of their upcoming GP38 and GP40 in N. There are several different body styles that they're working on both with and without dynamic brakes, and they'll also have a high nose version. There were a lot of other modelers hanging around there, so I didn't get a chance to really find out much more about it yet. The flyer they had lists GMTX, Providence & Worcester, Wisconsin & Southern and undec for the GP38, and Amtrak, FEC, Vermont Railway, Rio Grande, Susquehanna and undec for the GP40 as well as Alaska Railroad, CSX, IHB and undec for the GP40-2. Athearn has a nice large booth at the show. They had test shots of the upcoming F45 and FP45 models in both HO and N, but there was a sign next to them to talk to a specific rep before taking photos of them. Since that person was busy every time I walked by, I couldn't in good conscience get pictures of them yet. Athearn had a flashy color brochure of upcoming models that includes notes about these as well as 4-8-2s, SD45-2s, F3s, F7s, F9s, MP15ACs, UP Northerns, RS3s, GP40Xs and SD38s in HO along with 53' container chassis, 50' iced reefers, SP 1937 and 1938 Daylight trains, 50' flat cars and ACF 2970 covered hoppers. Us N scalers will get the F45/FP45s, SD70s, 4-6-6-4 Challengers, 50' ice reefers and 50' Overland passenger cars (now if only they'd do the MP15AC in N; I need a few for my Milwaukee Road layout). Walthers also has a large booth at the show. They were showing a fully animated container straddle crane from Heljan that they are importing. This thing is way cool, and there's a video at Walthers's site to show it off. The crane is designed to operate on track sections that are available separately, but you can lay your own rails to extend the length of where it will run. The base controller will operate up to three distinct cranes and the Walthers rep said that you can combine up to 12 cranes on a layout. Why anyone would need 12 of these is a different story. There were a bunch more new products shown from these and other manufacturers, but until I get more information on them, you'll just have to wait in due suspense. If I don't get to it sooner, I plan to put up photos and complete details later this week.

Trip report - A quick tour of Colorado

We just got back from a short vacation in Colorado. What is a railfan to do when surrounded by some of the best known narrow gauge railroading in North America? He goes to the museums and rides the trains, of course. On this trip, we visited the Colorado Railroad Museum, and rode Manitou & Pikes Peak Railway and the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad. Here's a little bit of a photojournal documenting the trip (39 photos, dialup users beware)...

Colorado Railroad Museum

Our first stop was the Colorado Railroad Museum. One of the first items in the museum that caught my eye was this monument. No, it's not a replica, this is the original monument erected by the Rio Grande Railroad to commemorate the design of the first dome car.

The monument was originally located in Glenwood Canyon, and can be seen there in photos from before the construction of Interstate 70. The Denver Public Library has a photo of the monument by Otto Perry from before the construction (yes, it's the other side of the monument).

The dome car is said to have been invented by an executive for EMD who was riding through the Rockies aboard one of the company's then common F units, very similar to this F9 pair across the museum grounds.

Just below the F9s is the museum's roundhouse. It's not just for show; with the working "armstrong" turntable, the museum's restoration and operating equipment maintenance efforts are carried out here. We arrived in time to watch two of the museum's staff do some switching on the turntable.

They used the little shop switcher to pull the passenger car out of the first stall and put it on another track, then they moved the open excursion car into the recently emptied roundhouse stall. Did you notice that the track under the switcher has four rails? The turntable bridge does too. The two inner rails are gauged at 3' to handle the museum's narrow gauge equipment, while the two outer rails are 4' 8½" for the standard gauge equipment. This type of rail configuration was common when multiple gauges had to be accommodated in the same roundhouse. By laying the two gauges using the same track centerline, they could ensure that the rails would always line up correctly for either gauge when equipment was turned around.

One of the other turntable tracks included this interesting piece of equipment. Take a close look at the couplers on this one.

Yes, there are two couplers at each end. This is a short standard gauge flat car that is designed to work as a conversion car between standard gauge and narrow gauge equipment. The Rio Grande Railroad used these on the dual gauge track between Alamosa and Antonito, where narrow gauge locomotives would pull strings of standard gauge freight cars on transfer runs between the two towns. They used locomotives like this one on these trains.

I wandered around the museum to take a few artsy-fartsy shots of the equipment, like this one...

and this one...

It seems like every railroad museum that I visit these days has a GP30 somewhere on the property. Well, CRM was no exception as this former DRGW locomotive was behind the roundhouse.

But, this is the only museum I've been to where the GP30 was coupled to a Galloping Goose. Goose number 6 shared the same turntable track next to a Baldwin steam locomotive built in 1880 (no, there really wasn't room enough for me to back up further on this shot).

The museum also had Galloping Goose number 2 and 7 on other turntable tracks undergoing restoration. Hopefully, the next time we visit, we'll be able to ride one of them around the museum's loop.

In looking around, I soon found that I wasn't alone in wandering the railroad's back property. This little guy showed up a couple times. I guess he wanted to be seen, because he stopped and posed for me a couple times. I call him "The CRM Bunny."

 

Pike's Peak Cog Railway

The next morning, we stopped in Manitou Springs to ride the Pike's Peak Cog Railway, formerly known as the Manitou & Pike's Peak Railway.

At the depot, one of the original steam locomotives, also built by Baldwin, was on display at the bottom end of track.

We didn't get to ride in front of steam on this trip. That's not a typo. You see the big round bumper type thing where the front coupler is supposed to be? That pushes against the passenger car's bumper; the locomotive operated below the unpowered rolling stock on this railroad. Since the grade only went in one direction, the locomotives didn't need couplers. Gravity held the unpowered cars against the motive power. We rode in some Swiss built diesel-powered rail cars for this trip. Here's our train pulling into the station.

The depot is at 6,571 feet, but going up a grade that at times is as steep as 24%, it doesn't take very long to gain some real altitude. After just under 2 miles, we pass Minnehaha siding at 8,332 feet in elevation.

Another mile gone by and another siding, this one called Half-Way House. This is the former site of a "resort" hotel that was half way between the city of Manitou Springs and the summit of Pike's Peak. Today the siding held only a flat car.

Two miles later we pass Mountain View siding at 10,012 feet in elevation. The cabin at the end of the siding is built from a former M&PP passenger car; it's a common stopping point for hikers who take the path from the other side of the tracks to Barr Camp (which is about 1.5 miles north and 186 feet higher than the siding). We start to feel the cold here, and it's time to put on our coats.

A little farther along, the valley that we are climbing widens out and we are able to look back and see Colorado Springs for the first time.

About a mile and a half past Mountain View, we pass the tree line and reach Windy Point siding. The landscape is very barren here, but we are able to more easily see where the railroad right of way continues up the mountainside in front of the train (it's that diagonal line from about the middle of the right hand side of the image roughly following the edge of the visible grass).

Just a few minutes later, we are at the summit of Pike's Peak at 14,110 feet above sea level. Somewhere out there is Kansas. The temperature at the peak today is hovering right around 40 degrees fahrenheit, which is no problem for a Wisconsinite, but the lack of oxygen at this altitude puts a damper on any thoughts of exercise. Like the guide said on the way up, breathing here is its own reward.

I tried a couple artsy-fartsy shots here too, but only got one really good image off the digital camera (I haven't gotten the film developed from my other camera yet). This is not somewhere that will allow running past the buffers at the end of track.

On the way back down the mountain, we met the second train of the day at Windy Point, and then the third train at Minnehaha siding.

Finally, we arrive back at the bottom station just in time for lunch. It takes a little while to recover from the effects of the altitude, so I take a few moments to look around the station some more. The train that we rode up earlier in the day is now being readied for the next trip up the mountain, which will also be the second to last departure for the day.

 

Royal Gorge

Since our next ride wasn't scheduled to depart until the next morning, we took the scenic route to the Royal Gorge. We didn't have time after lunch to ride the gorge train, but we did get to see it in the station. A few of the cars in the train are full dome cars, some of which were used in Alaska and are originally of Milwaukee Road heritage.

Other cars in the train were cut away versions of former coaches. I've got to model one of these for my NTrak tourist trains.

We got to the gorge itself just before the tourist trap portion of the bridge area was about to close. That was no great loss for us since we only wanted to see the gorge and bridge and not partake in any of the festivities or attractions at the rim. We were on our way out of the parking area before we spotted the free observation area. The light's on the wrong side of the bridge for photos late in the day, but here's what we saw...

Way down at the bottom of the gorge is the Arkansas River and the former Rio Grande mainline. That's the track that the Royal Gorge train uses today. After seeing this, we drove along the river, watching the former Rio Grande mainline on the other side of the river all the way to Salida. There we turned south and headed toward Alamosa where our hotel reservation was for the night.

Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad

The highlight of the trip was the next day's ride on the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad. We chose to ride from Antonito to Osier and return, mostly because we didn't really want to spend time on a bus to get back to our car from Chama. The train was ready and waiting when we got to Antonito.

We had a little time before boarding the train, and it is now when I capture what I think is my favorite image from the long weekend. The fireman is ready and waiting in the engine cab.

We're soon under way and I make my way to the open car, where I will spend most of the ride getting sunburned. One of the signs on the car in front of me catches my eye...

Yes, that's the locomotive's exhaust. From Antonito to Osier is almost a constant climb, but only at a 1.24% ruling grade, so we don't need any extra assistance to get up the hill. From Chama, it's a 4% grade, and the train is double-headed. Next time we go, we'll ride that end of the line to see the twin locomotives working upgrade. This trip, we started out the day with perfect railfanning weather, but the storm clouds soon gathered.

The storms stayed off in the distance for a while, but as we gained altitude, we heard the thunder over the ridge. By the time we got to our water stop at Big Horn, we were getting drops of rain here and there.

Finally, a few minutes later, we had to flee the open car for the shelter of the coaches as the rain came down heavily enough to bother even the most hardy of the railfans. We even got pea-sized hail for a few minutes. But then the clouds parted enough that we could go back to the open car for the rest of the ride to Osier. Here we're passing the Phantom Rocks.

We passed through Mud Tunnel at the pinch point of Toltec Gorge and almost instantly could see about 600 feet down from the side of the track. The canyon was too narrow to get a complete shot from top to bottom at our angle, but here's the other side of the canyon at this point to give you an idea of its ruggedness.

We passed through Rock Tunnel and the canyon widened out again. A few minutes later, we got our first view of Osier, where we had a hot lunch waiting for us and where we would turn around for the return trip. The train from Chama has already arrived at Osier.

Looking at the route map, I saw that there was a turnaround loop at Osier, so I had expected that the engineer would back the train around the loop and we'd head back in the same orientation as we did on the way up. Nope. The Chama train's crew had already uncoupled both locomotives (it was double-headed up from Chama and one locomotive had already run around the train on the siding), and they were ready to make an engine swap at the station. They pulled their locomotive forward to couple onto what was the rear of our train and our crew did the same with our locomotive.

After lunch, I was able to look around a little and get a shot or two of our "new" locomotive, number 488. It may have been narrow gauge, but it was still big.

On the way back down the hill, I was able to get ready to photograph items that I had missed on the way up, like the Garfield monument just west of Rock Tunnel. That's US President James Garfield, not the cat. The railroad erected this monument to him after his assassination in 1881.

I also got a good shot of the shoofly around Mud Tunnel. The detour was needed after the tunnel's timbers caught fire in the late 1800s. The guides told us that passengers were expected to walk this path from their train on one side of the tunnel to another passenger train on the other side of the tunnel. Freight cars were pulled one at a time by horse on temporary track until the tunnel was repaired.

The ride back down the hill wasn't quite as eventful as the ride up, the storms stayed away from the train for the entire trip down. There was one passenger in the first class parlor car who kept leaning out the window to see the locomotive, so I finally gave up on keeping him out of all my pictures and tried to make the best of it.

All too soon, the ride is over as we pull in to Antonito. I take a quick turn through the gift shop as the majority of the train's passengers board the bus to Chama to return to their own cars. The engine crew pulls the locomotive around to the shops area where it will stay for the night next to one of Rio Grande's very few narrow gauge diesel locomotives (now owned by and lettered for the Cumbres & Toltec), and I'm able to walk around for a few final shots.

The next morning, we drove back to Denver, following what used to be called the Joint Line, shared by Santa Fe and Burlington Northern railroads. Ownership and operations over this track have been greatly simplified since the two railroads merged in 1995 to form what is now BNSF Railway. We saw a few coal trains along the route, but didn't have time to stop and photograph anything. Maybe next time.

So, that's what I did for my summer vacation.