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 Two: D&RGW, 1968 - The Last Gasp


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
46 K-28's at Bridge over Conejos River ER April 23, 1968
47 K-28's on Curve near La Jara ER May 28, 1968
48 K-28's south of Alamosa JW May 28, 1968
49 K-28's at Antonito Tank JW May 28, 1968
50 K-28's at Los Pinos Tank JW May 28, 1968
51 Alamosa - The Final Sunrise RS Aug. 28, 1968
52 Alamosa - water plug RS Aug. 28, 1968
53 Alamosa - coal loader RS Aug. 28, 1968
54 Alamosa - passing the depot RS Aug. 28, 1968
55 Alamosa - outbound doubleheader RS Aug. 28, 1968
56 Antonito - the speedway RS Aug. 28, 1968
57 Milepost 302 - around the curve RS Aug. 28, 1968
58 Milepost 304 - blowing out the mud RS Aug. 28, 1968
59 Sublette at noon - water plug RS Aug. 28, 1968
60 Leaving Sublette - slippery footing RS Aug. 28, 1968
61 Cumbres - arriving at the Summit RS Aug. 28, 1968
62 Cumbres - uncoupling the helper RS Aug. 28, 1968
63 Cumbres - helper #483 departs RS Aug. 28, 1968
64 #484 & train at Lobo Lodge Crossing RS Aug. 28, 1968
65 #484 & train at Lobato Trestle RS Aug. 28, 1968
66 Last Revenue Freight, engine below Lobato RC Aug. 29, 1968
67 Last Revenue Freight, helper below Lobato RC Aug. 29, 1968
68 Last Revenue Freight, below Cresco siding RC Aug. 29, 1968
69 Last Revenue Freight, #498 below tanglefoot RS Aug. 29, 1968
70 Last Revenue Freight, east of tanglefoot RS Aug. 29, 1968
71 Last Freight entering Los Pinos Valley RS Aug. 29, 1968
72 "I Saw the Whole Thing" in Los Pinos Valley RS Aug. 29, 1968
73 THE LAST FREIGHT, east of Lava Tank RS Aug. 29, 1968
74 Last Freight approaching Antonito RS Aug. 29, 1968
75 Picking up orders for the last time RS Aug. 29, 1968
76 Smokin' up the town RS Aug. 29, 1968
77 The Last Freight - End of the Line RS Aug. 29, 1968
78 Natl. Parks Special at Cumbres Summit ER Nov. 24, 1968
79 Natl. Parks Special at depot in Antonito ER Nov. 24, 1968
80 Last Train: equipment move near Big Horn AC* Dec. 5, 1968
81 Last Train: equipment move near Sublette AC* Dec. 5, 1968
82 Last Train: equipment move in Los Pinos Valley AC* Dec. 5, 1968
83 Chama, last day of D&RGW operations ER Dec. 6, 1968
  * Gildersleeve Collection    

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.