01/04/26

 It's Steamy Sunday here on the Blog and the first one of 2026!  I always have to start the year off with my favorite railroad, the Cumbres & Toltec which I got to ride on again last summer.  I took this image at Windy Point, the highest point on the railroad.  This was the day after our ride while I was chasing the train for photos.  They stop here on the way up from Chama to rest a bit and usually fill with water as the train and crew have been working hard up in elevation most of the way.  During this time they were having to use a water tower a bit further on as the stand pipe here was not functioning.

 

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.