Grabbed this off a FB group. 315 heading up a freight from Chama to Antonito in 2019. Fantastic photo.
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That was shot late in the evening on a Photo Charter. The location is just short of the top of Cumbres Pass, The rail line does a big loop around the way we are heading, and comes back on the track you see just above the engine. And around that corner is Cumbres at 10,021 ft high. That pond is only there after a good rain, or in the spring after the snow melts. Iām pretty sure Iām firing in the cab.
She is such a sweet heart of a little engineā¦
Edit: That location is called Tangle foot curveā¦
Google Earth Geo Locationā¦ 37Ā° 0ā44.66"N 106Ā°26ā44.11"W.
Dave you are very privileged to be able to have that as one of the toys you get to play with. Not only do you get to play with 1:1 steam locomotives but you get to do it in such a beautiful place.
I was hoping youād have the context of the photo.
Wow - Iām actually surprised that 315 can handle that much train up the grade.
Those must not be Accucraft cars 
A couple of cheatsā¦ That side of the pass, the ruling grade is only 1.3%. We limit ourself to about 16 cars empty from Antonito to Chama. We try to stay about at 80% of rated tonnage, to be a bit gentle on a 129 year old engine, and not break anything. Baldwin is really lousy at sending replacement partsā¦
From Chama to Cumbres Pass is 14 miles of continuous 4% gradeā¦ Thats brutal at best. We can get 8 empties up the hill by ourself.
Itās about 50 miles from Antonito to the top of the pass, and only 15 from Chama. same amount of elevation gainā¦
FYI: On the D&Sā¦ they have about a 1/4 mile section of 4% grade ( just past the Hermosa Crossing, behind Honeyville) the rest is only about 1.2%. And form Durango to Hermosaā¦ I believe its less than 1%.
Thatās just funny stuff right there. How often do factory sales reps show up with a catalog or line card?
See, if I knew the railroad better I would have realized that this was on the Antonito side of Cumbres Pass. I was thinking of the grade out of Chama. 8 cars sounds more like it on the 4%.
Real locomotives perform better than our models. On my curving 4%, a lone C-19 can barely get 4 cars up the hill 
Dave, does the C&T normally run freight or was this solely to exercise some cars for a photo shoot? Herself reminded me about the mixed freight train out of Antonito, that had an area along the line where the bears got drunk on spilt molasses from a derailment. What happened to that line?
That shot was from a āPhoto Charterā.
There are 0 Business entities along the entire C&T. The closest to Freight is MOW moves with ties, rail and they have 6 ex EBT bottom dump ballast cars.
Never heard that tail of drunk bearsā¦ Have seen several along the ROWā¦
OK just thought Iād show off one of my own shotsā¦
Enjoy
EDIT: BTW 425 is the first number that she wore on the D&RG in 1917 when she was bought from the defunk F&CC. She was re numbered to 315 in 1923 when the D&RG merged with the RGW to become the D&RGW!
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very cool picture. Not just because of the locomotive. Its a neat scene in a beautiful place. Excellent picture. Thatās one to be proud of.
What a breathtaking view, Dave. I have no idea whatās behind you, but if it looks anything like whatās in front, Iād be hesitant to ever leave. Thanks for sharing.
I have just finished reading/gazing at the book :Rio Grande Finale" from CRP&A which I got for Xmas. Highly recommended.
https://railphoto-art.org/riogrande-narrowgaugebook/
Among the fabulous photos of the end of operations on the Rio Grande of the 1960s, there is a pretty full description of operations on the San Juan extension (Antonito to Durango.)
A brief synopsis: A freght āturnā took 3 days. A freight was dispatched from Durango heading east, and another from Antonito heading west on the first day. As @Dave_Taylor says, the westbound trip to Chama is fairly easy, and both trains would arrive at Chama for the night.
On the second day, the westbound train would be taken onwards by the Durango crew. The eastbound train would be broken into sections, and hauled up the 4% grade the Cumbres by the loco and one or two helpers. This would be repeated until the whole train was at Cumbres and it was then reorganized behind the original loco from Durango and sent off to Antonito.
Fascinating stuff. (Oh, the third day was the Farmington run. Easy stuff with no mountains.)
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Crews Loved the Farmington Runā¦ Easy downhill drift from Durango to Farmington with up to 70 cars of pipe. Most of the cars went to the El Paso Gas Yard on the East outskirts of town and a few mixed freight on into town. Engine and Caboose turned on the Wye, and back to Durango Picking up empties on the way back. The grade back to Durango was 1% or less, easy work, for a full days pay. The Empties for the Pipe train were left on a siding at Carbon Junction [ just South of the Durango yard ] for the next run East.
The Durango to Farmington line was originally laid as standard gage, and the Durango yard was 3 rail. That line was eventually changed over to NG in one weekendā¦ The Only Line in the US that was changed from SG to NGā¦
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Dave,
Does the right of way between the Chama and the Durango still exist? How did 2 heritage rail lines survive the dismantling?
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Bill, the Durango - Silverton was never threatened with dismantling. Thereās some fascinating articles about the efforts of the local enthusiasts to persuade D&RG that running passenger trains was a good business, but they werenāt interested and sold it instead as a working operation.
The track between Durango and Chama was dismantled, but not before the States of CO and NM had decided that they could entice tourists with a working steam RR, so they bought the Chama-Antonita portion.
There are traces of the old line at various places on the way. When we drove in 2019 from Denver to Durango, we found several road crossings with tracks left intact.