Steamscape: Rio de Los Pinos Trestle. Eureka & Palisade #4 and Carson & Tahoe Lumber & Fluming Company #1 cross the Rio de Los Pinos on the 175' wooden pile trestle at MP 324.52, as they haul their short freight westbound on the 64-mile journey from Antonito, Colorado, to Chama, New Mexico.
This cross-railroad journey, run in tandem with D&RG loco #s 168 and 425 and their passenger train, proved to be a test of the railroader's skills....and patience. Only by making a trip such as this one can we begin to appreciate the challenges faced by railroad crews back in the mid-to-late 1800s. These engines are small, with tractive effort in the 7,000 lb range, which seriously limits the size of the consist they can handle. A single C-18 Locomotive, such as D&RGW 425 (315) has more than double the pulling power of either of these little engines. Neither is superheated, so they go through their water supply pretty quickly, and their fuel supply even more quickly, necessitating more stops than more modern engines make and those stops are lengthier. Wood takes a lot more time to load than coal or oil. In addition, these engines were not built with air pumps or brake reservoirs.....those items were retrofitted later in life and they are small. As a consequence, the engineer has to be very strategic in the application of brakes or risk getting in trouble on steep grades. And lastly, another lesson was learned later this day, as the two engines descended the 4% grade from Cumbres Pass to Chama. That lesson was that there are range cattle and elk on this railroad and they are dark in color and hard to see. The oil lamp headlights on these engines proved very ineffective. As one engineer told me: "They're just bright enough to see what you're about to hit." Being an innovative bunch, the crews of these two engines elected to utilize a large LED lantern that one of them was carrying, to light the tracks ahead. No kidding, they really crept their way down that hill with a flashlight!
