Double-heading to Cumbres Pass. There are not many places left in the US where you can see steam double-headers in regular, revenue service. Some tourist railroads and museums run them on special occasions, or on charters, but they are typically just for show, and often feature very dissimilar locomotives pulling relatively short trains. One shining exception is the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad in Chama, New Mexico, which features a steady 4% uphill climb over the course of the first 13 miles of its journey. Their normal 8-car tourist consist gives a single K-36 Locomotive just about all it can handle on a daily basis. During the fall foliage season, the passenger loads sometimes dictate adding a couple of extra coaches and when that happens, a second locomotive becomes mandatory for the train to make it to the 10,000 ft. high Cumbres Pass. On this particular morning, we see K-36 Locomotives #s 487 and 489 doing the honors, hauling a 10-car train out of a tight cut known as "The Narrows" and past a dry lake bed known as Lake Lobato. This is no photo special. It's a bona-fide, revenue double-header, using identical locomotives that have been working these very tracks for 90 years. It's a spectacle that is not only exciting to watch, but one that can literally be heard for miles, up and down the Chama Valley.
The Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad and the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad are all that remains of the legendary Denver & Rio Grande Western narrow gauge system. Here you'll find some of my favorites from these two beautiful railways.
