Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad

Early start for a long day on the train.  Cousin Don and I had coffee and sweet roll before the trip.  Not hungry for a big breakfast, specially we were getting a big lunch as part of the ticket price.

Had to wait until this morning to pick up our tickets.  We boarded a motorcoach for the drive over to Chama.  Had a nice conversation during the hour-long ride.  Gal across the aisle was from Mankato, MN.  Interesting chat up here on the front of the bus.  When we arrived in Chama, we quickly board the train, finding our seats.

Once the train was underway, it didn't take much time for the conductor to run thro9ugh the train punching our tickets.  At that time, we were allowed to get out of our seats and move around thee train.  For information, the train consisted the following:  Locomotive and tender, three coach cars, a concession car, open gondola, Tourist car, and finally Parlor car.  The open gondola was equipped with a sound system.  The docent onboard spend most of the ride describing the railroad and the scenery on the sound system on the gondola.

As soon as we head out of Chama, the train started climbing.  It took about 1 1/2 hour to climb up to the summit of Cumbres Pass.  There, the train stopped to take on water.  The docent passed out pamphlets including a railroad map with note-worthy locations on the route.

About half way through the trip, we arrived Osier where we were served lunch.  There were 2 hot lunches we could select - meatloaf or turkey.  I had the meatload dinner, which consisted of a slice of meatloaf, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, green beans, roll or corn bread, and a selection of deserts.  For drinks, there was water, coffee, iced tea (sweetened and unsweetened), pink lemonade, and lemonade.

There was time to stretch legs and look at some of the older building at Osier.  Cousin Don scoped out while there, I relaxed back on our train car - needed the time off my legs/knees.

One of the options for riding the train is to turn back at Osier, riding back the train to your departure location.  It seemed to me that we lost over half of our follow travelers took the train back to Chama rather than continuing on to Antonito, CO.

The weather forecast was for about 60% chance of rain.  We had periods of rain, mostly light showers.  Most of the ride it was overcast. 

The scenery on the East end of the railroad is both the more scenic (and dramatic) section of the railroad and the most boring part of the train ride.  The train runs through 2 tunnels on this half of the line.  There were scenic highlights of "Calico Cut" and the Toltec Gorge.  The last 1 1/2 of the trip was pretty boring, nothing much to look at except for sage brush.  And, actually, this was fine as we were tired from the long day on the train.

We were a little late arriving Antonito.  Don and I looked for a good. cold beer when we got back to town.  The one bar in Antonito did not open 7pm.  We settled for a bottle of Dos Equis and the restaurant where we ate last night.  By 8pm, both of us were sound asleep.

I have processed my photos from the train ride.  Eventually I will sort and select photos to post on my website.