ROUNDING UP VICTORIAN IRON HORSES

Cumbres & Toltec celebrates 50 years with narrow gauge special guests in the Rockies

How do you celebrate the major anniversary of an American preservation railroad that is automatically a step back in time to the 1920s? If your railroad is the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic, the 64-mile remnant of the Denver & Rio Grande Western’s narrow gauge San Juan Extension, you throw a party — and turn the clock back another 20 years to before 1900.

The COVID-19 pandemic pushed the anniversary celebration back a year, but in late August 2021, the biggest party in narrow gauge history came together with visiting locomotives Eureka and Glenbrook from Nevada, the Cumbres & Toltec’s own 19th-century 4-6-0 No. 168, and in-residence 2-8-0 No. 315, renumbered to an earlier time when it was No. 425. In addition, Trains magazine arranged for the Colorado Railroad Museum’s newly restored 1899 Rio Grande Southern 4-6-0 No. 20 to join in as an after-party guest for two photo charters for the faithful. Trains also arranged another event, the first photo charter with the Durango & Silverton’s oilburning K-37 2-8-2 No. 493, restored in 2020. Join us for a look at the Victorian Iron Horse Roundup, Rio Grande Southern No. 20 photo charters, and our special train, Extra 493, on the Durango & Silverton. This was two weeks of amazing narrow gauge action unlike anything ever before it, and yet another affirmation of the amazing power of little trains in the Rockies.

Like the marketing guy yelling, “But wait, there’s more!” there was indeed more to come after the Victorian Iron Horse Roundup, thanks to Trains magazine. This publication, which has lauded the Colorado narrow gauge back to its beginnings in the early 1940s, arranged for newly restored (as of 2020) Rio Grande Southern 4-6-0 No. 20 to make an appearance on the Cumbres & Toltec. An 1889 graduate of Schenectady, which had begun life as a Florence & Cripple Creek locomotive and moved on to the RGS in 1915, appeared in two days of photo specials on the C&TS. Stilled after the RGS failed in the early 1950s, it was brought back to life to be an on-site marvel as well as a roving ambassador for owner Colorado Railroad Museum and to honor the Rocky Mountain Railroad Club that saved it. No. 20 performed twice for fans, covering mileage out of Antonito, Colo., as far west as Osier, Colo. This was its first outing away from the museum’s campus in the suburban Denver foothills town of Golden.

Inspiration for the Rio Grande Southern Sunset came from retired C&TS President John Bush, who has memories of the RGS as a child, and from William Moedinger’s February 1942 Trains cover showing a brakeman riding No. 20’s front pilot to watch for landslides on a regular basis. The cover fronted a 17-page feature.

Investigation of images in Trains photo files turned up evidence the train Moedinger photographed was actually a doubleheader with former Rio Grande K-27 Mudhen No. 455. C&TS graciously agreed to reletter and renumber its K-27, No. 463, for the event.

The event and a follow-up trip with No. 20 solo on freight cars and historic coaches proved that the ancient Ten-Wheeler has plenty of life and gutsy personality. The engine steams freely, pulls hard, and exhibited no signs of old age. Fans noted that the engine deposited a pile of cinders on its own smokebox just behind the stack and also on the running boards.

Trains is proud of its role as the sponsor for No. 20’s first outing, and is excited to see where the engine may turn up next.

In addition to everything else going on in Southwestern Colorado in August and September 2021, Trains also sponsored a two-day photo outing with Durango & Silverton’s newly restored (also as of 2020) oil-burning K-37 2-8-2 No. 493. The locomotive pulled a two-day overnight special to Silverton with a 21stcentury version of the Silverton mixed of the 1950s: Freight cars, coaches, and a caboose. Of course, in real life, K-37s never ran the Silverton branch, but it did not stop the faithful from appreciating the relatively rare Mikado type made from standard gauge boilers. Guest starring was visiting Southern Pacific 4-6-0 No. 18, on loan to the D&S for the second year in a row from its California home. Between the Victorian Iron Horse Roundup and Trains-sponsored events on the two narrow gauge survivors, fans got to experience in the span of two weeks an amazing array of power in a variety of settings: From colorful but fragile wood burners to the biggest and best designs created to move freight. The faithful got to appreciate the difficulty of railroading in the Rockies and the ingenuity of the railroaders dispatched to conquer those mountains. They also got a reminder of how Trains Editor David P. Morgan summed up the Colorado narrow gauge experience in the landmark October 1969 issue devoted to the subject. In a John Gruber photo essay, which included two K37s — one of them No. 493 — Morgan described love for the narrow gauge as a persuasion that entered the blood stream and could not easily be eliminated. For those who appreciate the sight of No. 20 high-stepping at Toltec Creek or No. 493 steaming near Cascade, Colo., no one would wish the feeling away. Two weeks in the Rockies celebrating America’s surviving narrow gauge trains is time well spent. The Colorado narrow gauge lives on, and is still there for new generations to explore.

Denver & Rio Grande 2-8-0 No. 425 and 4-6-0 No. 168, Rio Grande Southern 4-6-0 No. 20, and 4-4-0 Eureka rest at Antonito, Colo., on Aug. 23.

One of the kickoff events for the Victorian Iron Horse Roundup was the demonstration of Rio Grande pile driver OB at Antonito. The steam-powered pile driver was built in 1891, rebuilt in 1920, and restored to operation in 2008 by the Friends of the C&TS.

C&TS Special Projects Director Stathi Pappas aims a water hose into the tender of visiting 2-6-0 Glenbrook while other crew toss chunks of wood from a gondola to feed the two hungry wood burners, both built in 1875. The location is Lava, Colo.

Two 1875 steam locomotives, privately owned 4-4-0 Eureka and Nevada State Railroad Museum’s 2-6-0 Glenbrook, show the world what railroading looked like when locomotives were trimmed in brass. Cumbres & Toltec’s own Denver & Rio Grande 4-6-0 No. 168, built in 1883 and restored to operation in 2020 after a period of inactivity dating to 1937, doubleheads with 2-8-0 No. 425, built in 1985, near Antonito, Colo.

At the end of the rainbow at Antonito, Colo., are two woodburning 1875 Baldwin steam locomotives still alive and well in 2021. Eureka and Glenbrook rest after a day in the sagebrush.

Nos. 168 and 425 pull pre-1900 passenger cars across Los Pinos Creek during a Victorian Iron Horse Roundup excursion. One of the most iconic locations on the Rio Grande’s San Juan Extension, Tanglefoot Curve, witnesses the passage of Victorian celebrities.

Looking for all the world like a toy train, Eureka and Glenbrook power a short freight train at Los Pinos, Colo., for the benefit of fans. Narrow gauge steam superstars Eureka and Glenbrook make the final assault on 10,000-foot Cumbres Pass at Tanglefoot Curve.

RGS 20 doubleheads with Rio Grande 2-8-2 No. 463, masquerading as Rio Grande Southern No. 455, at Whiplash, Colo., during a photo charter organized by Trains magazine to celebrate the 4-6-0’s return to operation after an absence of some 70 years.

Nos. 20 and 455 pull a photo freight through Toltec Creek, Colo., in a scene reminiscent of Rio Grande Southern territory. No. 20 passed through what is today’s C&TS on its way to the RGS in 1915. “It’s come this way before,” says Colorado Railroad Museum CMO Jeff Taylor.

Colorado Railroad Museum volunteers Dusty Thompson and Mark Huber load sand into the front dome of Rio Grande Southern 4-6-0 No. 20 at Antonito, Colo., prior to its mainline debut. The 1899 Schenectady product’s multiyear rebuild was completed in 2020.

In a recreation of the famous William Moedinger photo of the brakeman riding the pilot to look for rockslides on the RGS in 1941, Tom Gillen, plays the part of the brakeman and Carlos Llamas is the engineer in real life. RGS track never looked this good!

Southern Pacific 4-6-0 No. 18, the legendary “Slim Princess,” performs for photographers in a setting very unlike its native California desert. The locomotive was on loan to the Durango & Silverton for the second year in a row from the Eastern California Museum in Independence.

A tie-replacement project along a portion of the railroad provided for a new vista on the southbound trains. For these moves, No. 493 operated as a passenger train and SP No. 18 pulled a freight. Both locomotives have seen extensive service on the D&S this year. “We have all of our operable locomotives out today,” said one D&S railroader.

Conductor Russell Heerdt on Extra 493 directs moves from the caboose cupola. The train operated as a mixed northbound, a throwback to the Silverton mixed of the 1950s, before the tourists began to show up in large numbers looking for a train ride.

Unlikely meet in the Animas River Canyon. Northbound Extra 493 is in the siding for the second Silverton-bound passenger train of the day with SP 18 and Rio Grande 2-8-2 No. 480. The odds of this photo occurring back in narrow gauge days were slim.

Engineer Mike May opens the throttle on the massive K-37 Mikado. Rebuilt between 1928 and 1930 from the boiler of a 1902 standard gauge Consolidation, the 10 K-37 narrow gauge 2-8-2s were workhorses, and still are.