OY in the Narrows

Rotary Steam Snow Plow D&RGW OY is battling heavy snow through the Narrows north of Chama, NM March 1, 2020. The Friends of the Cumbres & Toltec did an incred... (more)

Rotary OY after dark. Here's a rear quarter view of OY and her auxiliary water car as they sit in the Chama Yard. Like most of the Leslie-type rotary snow plows, OY was built as a standard... (more)

Rotary OY after dark. Rotary Snow Plow OY, her water car and Pusher Locomotive #487 sit at the Chama Coal Tipple after returning from the first day of operations. Lighting here was provide... (more)

Impact! My camera captures the instant that the charging rotary outfit makes explosive contact with the dense, 4 ft. deep snow pack in the yard at Cumbres Pass. The violence you see out in... (more)

Charge! After stalling out briefly in the dense, 4 ft. deep snow-pack on Cumbres Pass, the Rotary Outfit has backed up perhaps one car-length, and with two blasts of the small, shrill whist... (more)

Rotary OY reaches Cumbres Pass. Looking very much like it might have perhaps 80 years earlier, Rotary OY and her snow-fighting outfit reaches the snow-bound section house at the summit of C... (more)

Working toward Windy Point. Just 40 minutes after leaving Coxo Crossing, the Cumbres & Toltec's Rotary Outfit works its way along the ledge above Coxo, headed for Windy Point, just ahead. ... (more)

Breakout! After several minutes of hard plowing, Rotary OY and her train finally break through the 3 foot snow pack and onto Colorado Highway 17, with Pilot Marvin Casias leading the charge... (more)

Plowing the deep stuff at Coxo. As the Cumbres & Toltec's Rotary Outfit approaches the Highway 17 crossing at Coxo, the game begins to change. For most of the run from Chama to this locat... (more)

Steamscape: Perry's Pond. There are no pretty reflections, just shadows this day, as the Cumbres & Toltec Rotary Outfit claws its way through the last quarter mile toward the Highway 17 Cro... (more)

Steamscape: Orgasm Curve. With the snow-pack slowly deepening, the Cumbres & Toltec Rotary Outfit winds its way through the complex S-curve at Milepost 336.2 that has, in the past half cent... (more)

Approaching the S-Curves. The crew on Rotary OY has the safeties popping as the plow train continues the trek east toward Cumbres Pass, seen here approaching the S-Curves at MP 337.

Ro... (more)

Heading for the high country. Approaching 9,000 ft. MSL and with nearly 7 miles still left to go to make Cumbres Pass, the Cumbres & Toltec's Rotary Outfit is still making steady progress t... (more)

Shadow Dance. Plume shadows dance in the wind on a soft, snowy carpet as the the Cumbres & Toltec's Rotary Outfit approaches the second Highway 17 crossing, not far from the Colorado State ... (more)

Anatomy of a Rotary. High above Highway 17, and just north of Lobo Lodge, the Cumbres & Toltec's Rotary Snow Plow OY continues to slice through the snow-pack as she clears the line from Cha... (more)