C&TS 489, lettered for the DRGW, slogs up the 4 percent grade toward Cumbres Pass on a cold and wet spring day. It is the second Chama train of a new season. It has been a tough day, with slick rail and malfunctioning sanders, and the train is already over an hour late. It will get worse. At Los Pinos the 489 will derail and put all eight drivers onto the ground, apparently due to hitting an object on the rails. The hardy railroaders of the C&TS got the 489 back on the rails the following day. By the time you read this things should be back to normal on the C&TS, but routine on this very real mountain railway is rarely boring.
