A rare and historic sight! Just a hundred yards or so west of the US 285 crossing and just inside the Antonito Yard Limit, Eureka & Palisade #4 "Eureka"and her running mate, Carson & Tahoe Lumber & Fluming C0. #1 "Glenbrook" work westbound on the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad, engaging in a test pull to determine how much of a load they'll be able to take on a photo charter to Big Horn, just a little later in the day. Fortunately, the D&RG consist seen here, including a box car, gondola and two late 1800s vintage coaches proved to be well within their available tractive effort and the train quickly returned to the yard behind them, to water up and load passengers.
The operation seen here was one of several special excursions operated with the two 1875-vintage wood-burners, during the recent Victorian Iron Horse Roundup event on the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad. Watching this scene, it occurred to me that this was the first time this century and likely the first time in over a century that two wood-burners from this era had double-headed on a revenue train.....or any train, for that matter. My best guess regarding the last time this occurred would be sometime in the first decade of the 1900s on the standard gauge Virginia & Truckee, before all of their ancient locomotives were converted to oil firing. The Nevada-based V&T was perhaps the last railroad in the US to utilize a fleet of multiple, wood-fired locomotives built in the 1870s.
