Nostalgia & History > Cumbres loop in the old days

On July 23, 1963 some 40 plus cars trail the engine as a DRGW freight wraps around Cumbres loop heading down from Cumbres to Alamosa.  The loop is now commonly known as Tanglefoot curve, but according to DRGW old timers it was simply known as Cumbres loop back in the day.

JBWX

---

What type of load would they have carried in the gondolas/idler flats up front?   Long poles/pipes of some sort?

Milwaukee Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> What type of load would they have carried in the
> gondolas/idler flats up front?   Long poles/pipes
> of some sort?

Probably pipe, i.e. oil field pipe.

Beautiful pic!  As for what the gons and flats carried, it was mostly pipe for the oil and gas fields.  I could very well be wrong, but I think many of the boxcars carried drilling "mud" in some sort of container - steel drums?

Bob

I'll have some fun and answer with another picture.  Oil field tubulars on the flats and gons, and bagged drilling "mud" in boxcars are what kept the narrow gauge going so long.  I guess I should also mention the crude oil in the tanks moving from a small field north of Chama to a refinery in Alamosa.

JBWX



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/07/18 17:20 by jbwest.

---

Great pictures.  In the second one you can actually see someone sitting in the "doghouse" on the tender.

I always wondered about the logic behind putting the trains together at Cumbres after the train was hauled up the hill in 2 or 3 sections.  Logic would have put the heavy loaded tank cars on the the head end, the empty boxes in the middle (might have been loads of lumber in the boxes) and let the empty pipe gons and idlers ride on the rear.  I would think the train pictured would have been an SOB to handle with those heavy tanks in the middle of the train.

The pic of 498 heading west is interesting with the inclusion of the seemingly un-needed idler flat behind the engine.  The 9600-class pipe gon is handling her load with no overhang.  The idler flats were intended for pipe loaded on short (30') pipe gons made from high-side gondolas.  Probably a deal where it was in the consist already, and no one wanted to set it out.

Cool stuff!
For those not familiar with these pipe trains- note the rail strapped along lower edge of the flat car in the 2nd photo.  Without it these poor flats would easily snap in half in pipe train service!  (I 'spose some did anyway)
SR

An idling car for weight distribution on bridges??

No. The pipe was generally longer than the cars, so the idler flats provided room for the overhang.
SR

The pipe in the photo was short enough that the idler wasn’t really needed, but as Earl speculated in his comments, the trainsets were probably set up to handle whatever variation in pipe length the load demanded.

you can see a couple pipes sticking out

Great Stuff.

Must have been for the pipe going to Farmington NM.

Ed