Images © Tom Gildersleeve, Ernie Robart, Russ Sperry and John West - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Narrow Gauge Over Cumbres

The Transition Years, 1960-1979

Featuring photography by Tom Gildersleeve, Ernie Robart, Russ Sperry and John West,
with additional photos by Roger Callendar, Al Chione & Paul Orlow

Part One: D&RGW, 1960-67 - Increasingly Infrequent Images


The historic images previewed on these sites consist of a collection by the above photographers, which has been assembled into a Screen Saver by Roger Hogan of The Hotel & Shops in Chama, NM.   Use of the photos, and all labor involved, is being donated by these five "Fossil Foamites" (Curmudgeons and Curmudgeons-in-Training) so that the Screen Saver can be sold as a fundraiser for the restoration of D&RGW / C&TS Locomotive Number 483.

All images are copyrighted by the respective photographer and all rights reserved by their owners. These photographs may not be copied by any means whatsoever without the express written permission of the copyright holder


NOTE:   The images displayed above and described below were first set up for viewing by members of the project team for selection and sequencing purposes, and are available to potential purchasers of the Screen Saver for evaluation purposes ONLY. They may NOT be copied by any means whatsoever. They are based on the final versions of the images that were used to produce the screen saver, but reduced to 400x300 pixels (25% of final size), and saved as .jpeg files using a medium compression factor of 10 (5 for B&W), in order to minimize the time needed to download them to this preview website. The images on the screen saver itself are 1600x1200 pixels in size, and saved as uncompressed .jpg files of about 5 MB each in order to preserve the sharpness and details of the original photographs.

Photo Credits:
Nmbr     Description     Taken By When Taken
01 Chama water tower - snow TG October, 1960
02 Chama coal tower - snow TG October, 1960
03 Mixed freight above Lobo Lodge TG October, 1960
04 Helper engine above Lobo Lodge TG October, 1960
05 Empty flats nearing Cresco Siding TG October, 1960
06 Empty flats rounding Windy Point PO October, 1960
07 Alamosa sand tower - winter JW December, 1961
08 Alamosa water column - winter JW December, 1961
09 At Alamosa yard limit - winter JW December, 1961
10 Winter freight leaving Antonito JW December, 1961
11 Mid-train helper of winter freight JW December, 1961
12 Caboose of winter freight JW December, 1961
13 #487 at Chama, night - snow JW December, 1961
14 Kiwanis Kolor Karavan above Cresco RS October, 1962
15 Kiwanis Kolor Karavan near Windy Point RS October, 1962
16 #483 entering Chama at night TG October, 1962
17 #483 & tankcars on Lobato Trestle TG October, 1962
18 #483 & tankcars near Lobo Lodge TG October, 1962
19 #483 & tankcars at Coxo crossing TG October, 1962
20 #483 at summit after a "Cumbres Turn" TG October, 1962
21 Engine at summit - silhouette TG October, 1962
22 Flanger train leaving Antonito TG March, 1963
23 Flanger train arriving in Chama TG March, 1963
24 Flanger train engines at night TG March, 1963
25 Flanger train w/ tankcars leaving Chama TG March, 1963
26 Flanger train w/ tankcars nearing Lobato TG March, 1963
27 Flanger train w/ tankcars above Lobo Lodge TG March, 1963
28 Flanger train back in Antonito TG March, 1963
29 Flanger train near La Jara TG March, 1963
30 Flanger train entering Alamosa at sunset TG March, 1963
31 Two Engines at Antonito water tower JW July, 1963
32 Pipe train west of Antonito JW July, 1963
33 #488 at Cumbres, night JW July, 1963
34 Mixed freight on fill below Lobato JW July, 1963
35 Cumbres from inside snowshed JW July, 1963
36 RPO being used as caboose, Cumbres turn JW July, 1963
37 West of Toltec Gorge JW September, 1964
38 Scenic view of Osier from hillside JW September, 1964
39 Tanglefoot Curve at High Noon JW September, 1964
40 Kiwanis Kolor Karavan approaching Osier RS October, 1964
41 Chama coaling tower - "sepia" ER August, 1966
42 Leaving Chama, framed by trees JW September, 1967
43 Whistling for crossing below Coxo JW September, 1967
44 Chama Valley, train at Coxo Crossing JW September, 1967
45 Drifting into Antonito, late evening JW September, 1967

For a detailed history of D&RGW freight operations over Cumbres Pass in the mid-1960's - and approximately 200 excellent B&W photos - see "Rio Grande Narrow Gauge - The Final Years, Alamosa to Chama" by Joseph P. Hereford, Jr. and Ernest W. Robart.   For a wide selection of outstanding color photographs - including several by John West - covering operations on the D&RGW, the Cumbres & Toltec, and the Durango & Silverton narrow gauge railroads, see "NARROW GAUGE ... then and now" by Tom Gildersleeve and Nils Huxtable.   A great many more historic photos of the D&RGW narrow gauge are available for viewing on John West's website.