Steam & Excursion > Week-long September C&TS Trip, Day 3: Working in Chama

Click here for day 1 / Click here for day 2

Tuesday, September 25, was the first day I was working with the friends during work session G, since I had been on the Chili Line charter on Monday. After spending most of the morning in Antonito, the 4 of us working on getting the charter ready for the weekend of the 29, 30, and 10/1 got in a vehicle and drove over to Chama to take measurements on 463, do some minor work on a couple other cars, and get some info from a couple C&TS employees based in Chama.

We split to do our own seperate jobs, and later in the afternoon, we all gathered in the south yard to take the stuff I was using back to the wood shop. While we were doing this, Galloping Goose RGS #5 arrived in from Osier. Not long after, we were done for the day, and headed back to Antonito for the day.

Photo 1:
RGS Goose #5 passes an RGS sleeper on the property after a brief stop. I was working on the floor in the sleeper for prep to laminate the floor.

Photo 2:
One of the Dunn & Duffy Circus signs from "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade." Some of the graffiti on the frame dates back to the late 20s.

Photo 3:
While we were eating lunch, 489 was on the coaling track unloading the 1907 Model T from the flat car from the previous day. The Model T then was parked near the depot (along with the mini-Model T owned by the same gentlemen), and 2 more classic cars pulled up to make a really cool display!

By the time we made it back to Antonito, the passenger train was parked and the locomotive was being serviced, so we just went back to the car repair facility and chilled for the rest of the day. It wasn't meant to be a photo day, but I'm still pleased with the few phone pictures I got.

Thanks for looking, hope you enjoyed!
~wko

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Very nice. Did you get any pictures of the train coming into Chama? My family was aboard that day.

Jason Rose
Spring, TX
Rio Grande Explorations

Jason-Rose Wrote:
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> Very nice. Did you get any pictures of the train
> coming into Chama? My family was aboard that day.

That's cool! Unfortunately we were out of town by the time the train arrived. The interesting thing is we never saw it on the drive, so I have no idea where we passed it!
~wko

Photo #1 shows a blatantly unsafe act by the photographer.  It is unsafe to place oneself between standing equipment and a track where a live movement is occurring on any railroad and that includes the C&TS.  The reasoning is simple--if the moving equipment derails, or has dragging or shifted cargo, the person standing between the movement and standing equipment has no escape route.  Having worked on and around railroads for a long time, it always gripes me when photos like this appear because they give the impression that such behavior is OK around railroads.  For the record, this is a violation of the C&TS Railroad's posted Yard Safety Rules (yes, I've read them there).  A Friends volunteer (and I was one for many years) should know better than to do this in any case.