Hey hey USA - 4th November - the Toltec Railroad

 


We drove through Chama and were pleasantly surprised to come across a train terminal with station buildings and locomotives. The station at Chama is the western terminus of the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railway. This is a stream driven heritage railway which operates during the summer months, taking tourists the 64 miles between Antonito and Chama. The railroad is all that is left from the Denver and Rio Grande Railway extension running from Alamosa Colorado, west to Chama New Mexico and then on to Durango Colorado. The railway is narrow gauge as it was cheaper to build and also the trains can take sharper bends. The track had to be taken through two tunnels, over a 10,015 mountain pass and around a 600 ft gorge! It was used to transport minerals and then oil and lumber. However the Cumbres Pass proved problematic. In the winter the area can get as much as 500 inches of snow. The company bought two rotary snow ploughs which are still in Chama but in the winter of 1951 - 1952 the snow storms were so great and so expensive to deal with that the line was eventually discontinued as a commercial service.

We had a good poke around the railway yard which had lying snow and was quite cold before we set off again, also towards Antonita and over the Cumbres Pass.


Coming into Chama










One of the snow ploughs








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