Nostalgia & History > a few on the Carrizozo Sub

In June '96 CNW 8674 was eastbound with auto parts from MX near Duran, NM [top] SP 9310 was at Duran, NM westbound [middle] and SP 8535 was westbound near Newkirk, NM [bottom].
JB

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The US&S searchlight signal and SP block limits sign are classic of the era.

Nice work, Joe!

- Kit

Kit Courter
Menefee, CA
LunarLight Photography

Man, has that changed since 1983. Used to maintain semaphores there.

cs16 Wrote:
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> Man, has that changed since 1983. Used to maintain
> semaphores there.


Where are they 3rdswitch? :-) I remember I was is Tucamcari back in 94' 95' and seeing the US&S B's out there on the west end of town by the bridge, and seeing them change aspects for a SP stack train, for the first (and last) time on a main line. Then later that day driving up to Las Vegas and seeing the town frozen in time, with old cage traffic lights and beautiful warbonnets splitting the upper quadrants on the Raton line. I felt like I was in 1950, as time goes on I feel lucky to have experienced it, as it will never be duplicated.

cs16 Wrote:

> Man, has that changed since 1983. Used to maintain
> semaphores there.

What was SP's philosophy regarding signal replacements on this line (prior to the final push by UP to replace all the semaphores)? I remember driving along the line in the 80's south of Carrizozo and seeing semaphores, searchlights, and colorlights intermingled almost randomly, as though they replaced a failed signal with whatever was next in the pile at the storage yard.