07/27/27

 It's Steamy Sunday here on the Blog!  We're still visiting my trip to the Cumbres & Toltec Railroad in late June.  This is an image of the train as it is leaving Cumbres Pass, the highest point on the railroad and is heading for the lunch stop at Osier.

I have a short video of the train on it's way to Cumbres Pass HERE.

01/07/24

 It's Steamy Sunday here on the Blog and the first one of 2024!  I like to start off the year with my very favorite railroad, the Cumbres & Toltec in Colorado and New Mexico.  I want to get back there and ride again soon, it's been over 5 years since my last trip and this photo is even older.  I took this back when I was using a Sony point and shoot.  It was a good camera though with a nice built in zoom.  Anyway, in this image they are taking on water at Cumbres Pass before the locomotive heads back to Chama, NM.  They had just been double heading up to the pass and this is the helper locomotive.  I decided to go back to my roots of B&W for this image and I think it worked pretty well with that great sky.

4/28/19

It was a bit chilly out this morning but hopefully we are done with the cold weather.  I hope we get some rain this week like predicted, there are some big cracks forming in the yard.  My image today goes back to a day in spring last year while chasing the Cumbres & Toltec train.  I took this shot as it was leaving Windy Point at Cumbres Pass after stopping for water after it climbed the steep grade to the point.

11/25/18

Well we went from some lovely 60 degree weather yesterday to blizzard like conditions today.  UGH.  My image is from a much warmer day in May when I was riding the Cumbres & Toltec Railway.  We were heading up the grade from the New Mexico side and it was fun to experience the locomotive working hard.  We are at Windy Point in this image just about to head into Cumbres Pass.

8/5/18

I took this image the day after my train ride on the Cumbres & Toltec railroad.  I was chasing it and getting shots at different locations.  This image was taken as it is on it's way to Windy Point.  The grade here does not look steep but it has to climb several feet to the top and into Cumbres Pass.  The fireman must be shoveling in coal at this point to make sure the locomotive has enough steam power to make it up the hill since there is so much coal dust in the smoke.  It's dark after it's first shoveled in.

7/22/18

I took this image the day after riding the train.  This is at Windy Point and the train is climbing up it to Cumbres Pass.  The grade percent is the highest here and it climbs quite a number of feet in elevation in a short time and you need a good fireman and engineer so it does not slip on the rails while climbing and even then....  It was very windy in this area and I was glad I wore a jacket that day as it was quite cool as well.  It's kind of hard to image these days with the heat we have been having.