Santa Fe All The Way. On August 5, 2016, Amtrak Train 4 (Southwest Chief) was approaching the station in Albuquerque, New Mexico with AMTK 144 (P42DC, GE) leading when it passed under the former Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway cantilever signal in front of the former AT&SF shops with its signature "Circle and Cross" logos. Notably, they was an age of transition as the train has both a heritage (AMTK 1241, née-ATSF 3500, Budd, 1953) and a Viewliner II (AMTK 61065) baggage car. Once the biggest employer in Albuquerque, during the 1940s over 1,500 people worked here, one of four large shops on the railroad. As facilities were closed while the company transitioned from steam to diesel, this shop started to lose its significance and instead AT&SF modernized the Cleburne, Texas, and San Bernardino, California locations. By the 1980s it was scaled down to a maintenance of way base, and was closed and eventually purchased by the City of Albuquerque in 2007 for $8.5 million. Various redevelopment overall efforts have stalled, but the Blacksmith Shop building has hosted the Rail Yards Market ABQ for almost a decade. In the background on the opposite side of the tracks, a New Mexico Rail Runner Express train heads into its yard.
