Soot

The C&TS engines are roughly the same size and coal fired like the engines on my layout.  I think I have greatly underestimated  the amount of soot involved in operating coal fired engines and boilers.  Its everywhere.

Here is the tender deck, there is a thin coat of soot everywhere, even though the engines are well maintained.

What really struck me was, while taking pictures from the platform I turned around and looked at the car.  This was the 2nd or 3rd coach behind the engine.  The edges of the cars on the ends facing the engine were covered with soot,  a new weathering opportunity.

Time Machine...

I rode the double header last Memorial Day 2017 and had a blast! It's the closest you can get to time travel, particularly the Chama yard. If you haven't been, you need to go! One visit almost made me switch to narrow gauge...

Almost?!

Come I’m in Dave! The water is fine. Narrow gauge has an appeal that is hard to describe. Just the name “mudhen” conjures images of fat belly, low slung engines and rolling stock. Passenger cars that are narrow and elegant from an era of railroad pride up through depression era deferred maintenance with rails that made equipment t rock and sway. 

What’s not to love about narrow gauge?

@ Sean...

You said...

"One visit almost made me switch to narrow gauge..."

That's one of the reasons I also do "V scale" (trains via computer simulation).

V scale =

* Point/Click: The pale glow of the oil head lamp illuminates the rails ahead as I watch my steam pressuure while railroading on the Colorado Midland over Hagerman Pass in 1893.

* Point/Click: Struggling in the cab of an Rio Grande Southern engine to get a heavy freight over Lizard Head Pass during a heavy snow.

* Point/click: Shoving hard on the bobber caboose, up ahead I can see the double headed engines struggling as we battle gravity to lift a train of coal up to Alpine Tunnel.

Or, I can simply chose to work on a route (lay or modify some track, adding scenery, completing a V scale structure/scenery item/etc).

And so it goes!

Yup, I have several Colorado narrow gauge "route" projects (V scale term for "layout") on my hard drives. When not in the mood to do hands-on modeling in my HO themes, or, I want to let my hobby funds build up, I turn to V scale and indulge my Colorado narrow gauge interest. (Or my New England lines interest, or the Alleghenies, or the Ozarks... I even have or Stampede Pass during the switchback era on my hard drives!)

No conflict of scale, era, etc. Just point/click and I'm in an entirely new region, era, theme... all of it! All I need is room for my computer and good set of desktop speakers and I'm good to go in V scale!

However one chooses to enjoy the hobby of trains, HO scale, N scale, Z scale, or several scales... even V scale... it's all fun!

Andre

Chama...

In 2012, I finally got to ride the C&TS. Chama is an amazing place. Park your car, walk up to the station track and face away from he main road, and you'll feel as if you've stepped into the 1940s or 1950s.

Get your hands dirty....

I model the Rio Grande narrow gauge, I ride it and I photograph it.  But some of the most fun is working on it!

We just got  back from volunteering for two weeks. I got my ten year pin this year and my wife will have five next year.  Its addictive.  Nothing like jacking up a high-side gon and rolling a truck out to remove a wheel set.  You pick up a lot of detail info under the car.

If you love the narrow gauge, I urge you to join the Friends of the C&TSRR (http://cumbrestoltec.org) and participate in a work session.  Over the years I've rebuilt motorcars, used them during the tree trimming project along the line, repaired siding and windows on 0579, reconstructed the outbuildings behind the car inspector's house, built the stone base of the info kiosk on Cumbres Pass, re-decked a flatcar, worked building historic trucks for 292, etc.

Its more fun than you can shake a stick at.

AJ Hackmeyer
Tallahassee

You want to hear about the three hours with a note pad, tape measure and camera in the tumbled down remains of an outhouse?