Making the grade – To make sure this six-car train can successfully negotiate the demanding climb over Raton Pass, the Santa Fe has assigned an SD for each car, and a GP50 for the caboose. Always much more a passenger route than freight, my recollection is that Raton Pass was down to one mixed freight, one intermodal, and one Amtrak train each way in a 24 hour period. Here the eastbound mixed freight, train 804, has passed through Raton Tunnel at the summit, and is traversing the iconic curve at Wootton.
Aside from Warbonnets and Chiefs, Santa Fe was a workaday railroad like any other. This album showcases that less glamorous--but no less vital--side of the famous ATSF.