Steam & Excursion > Tiempo de Alamosa (diecinueve)

Alamosa Time!
Photo 1.  Looking over Earl's shoulder, hoping he'll do something interesting.  He didn't.
Photo 2.  Stevo's turn again.  See Earl- Stevo strikes interesting poses.
Photo 3.  My turn.
Photo 4.  Brief stop in Fir.  So far, no harm done!
Photo 5.  Tunnel Cam
Photo 6.  Aspen cleaning.  (They really clean up nice this time of year!)
SR

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Man, oh man, oh man! Good times, to be sure! This was the second of three times I was lucky enough to come aboard the locomotives and get my hands dirty.

The first was in '07. Vickie and I were on our honeymoon (That alone,  speaks volumes about her...). Earl invited both of us to ride in the cab. Knowing better, Vickie opted for the Parlor car. I, on the other hand, had brought my get-dirty attire, just in case such a chance might come along. At that time the SL&RG was using the ex-SP 1744, a 2-6-0 "valley mallet". Being a fan of Espee steam, this was pure and simple nirvana! Rolling across the miles of sage country east of Alamosa, Earl leaned over and said something to the effect of, " Forget the passenger cars and imagine we're on some Espee branchline outside of Fresno in 1956". It wasn't hard to imagine at all, the feel of a Espee Mogul bouncing along at 30 miles per hour and the wonderful smell of steam, lube oil and sagebrush in the air. 
At Fort Garland, the regular fireman (John Charles?) hopped out of his seat and invited me to take it to the summit. I suppose I did okay, as he never did boot me out of the seat, but was quite willing to answer my usual inane questions.

The next time I rode the cab was with Boiling Man in '09. SR and I took turns firing the 18 between Fort Garland and Fir. I do recall the the 18 being a smoother ride, but a bit trickier to fire - not as forgiving as the 1744. As one might imagine, a great time was had by all!

The third time was in '13 when Vickie and I, along with some friends did the narrow gauge again, followed by the now customary trip to Alamosa. Now, steam on this trip was pure and simple luck. The 18 has been out out service for some number of months and wasn't expected to be up and running anytime soon. A charter group had originally reserved most/all of the seats for the day we were planning to ride, but as word got out that the 18 wasn't going to be ready in time, riders canceled their reservations.
When my friend Dave and I stopped by the Alamosa depot on the the day before our trip to get some roster pics of cars and whatnot, we saw a headlight to the east of us by the enginehouse. Thinking it was just something switching the yard, we didn't pay much attention. That sort of changed when we heard a steam whistle and saw a cloud of dark smoke. Wow! Really? What are the chances??? Sure enough, 18 rolled towards us, into the yard and spotted to take water.

We walked over and engaged the engine crew in conversation. After a few moments, the Engineer said, "I've ridden with you before". I allowed that he was the fireman when I rode in '09. Having established that we were old friends (okay, that was really a stretch, but I'm not beneath the occasional a** kissing...), I asked if their was any chance of getting aboard the cab the next day. He said to come find him when we hit the summit at Fir, as he had some officials riding in the morning.

To clarify things, at this point Earl was no longer with the SL&RG, having since transfered down the the Texas State Railroad. Now John was the regular engineer (a quite capable one, at that).

To make a long story not quite as long, we rode, going aboard the 18 at Fir, but getting little firing time as they were training a new fireman (she too, was quite capable). 
Sadly, this may have been the only, or one of very few times the 18 was under steam that season, as the new GM of the didn't really see the value of steam powered tourist trains
(my guess his previous job was marketing at Enron...) 
So, we just lucked into that one!

S_W

In 2013 #18 ran the last part of August and all of the weekend fall color trains. She closed out the season running as she had in the past. The fact that most people don't know that is one of the real reasons 18 isn't running.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/30/15 07:44 by gregudolph.

Many years ago we rode behind 1744 with Earl as the engineer.  I also know John from our association with the Austin Steam Train Association, ASTA.
It's too bad that they no longer have steam train operations as my wife and I would ride again behind a steam locomotive.
I think that ASTA has the same feelings that the manager of SLRG has about steam locomotives.  It might be one of the reasons why former SP786 is still not in operations in Central Texas.
That is too bad.
I think that the ridership would increase if they were using steam locomotives, but that is just my theory. 
Pat
South Austin, TX

Does anyone know the status of the SLRG steam locomotives, 1744 and 18?
I remember that 1744's boiler was getting rebuilt and 18 was in the yard the last that I heard.
Any chance of SLRG selling or transferring these locomotives so they could be put to good use again.
It would be sad to see them just turn into buckets of rust for lack of interest.
Pat
South Austin, TX

Gregudolph - Thank you for the clarification on when the 18 ran that year. We were there in October and information from the front office was a bit iffy.

S_W

Love the sky in those photos. Helluva nice view from the cab.

Earl is truly a class act.

Jason Rose
Spring, TX
Rio Grande Explorations

Pat, the boiler to 1744 is in Rusk Tx., runniing gear in Alamosa and it doesn't look like the two will meet.