Personal Projects, Photography, and Pointless Pontifications
The San Luis Express
On Thursday, 9-Feb-2006, the San Luis & Rio Grande Railroad ran a
special, promotional trip from Alamosa to La Veta, CO, to officially
announce their new tourist services that will be launched during the
summer of 2006. In cooperation with Don Shank of the Denver & Rio
Grande Historical Foundation – the organization that owns the Creede
Branch and is restoring FEC 4-6-2 148 – trains will run from Alamosa
over to La Veta, crossing the scenic and inaccessible Veta Pass area,
and also from Alamosa down to Antonito to complement and connect with
the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic. The La Veta run will be known as the
San Luis Express, and the connection down to Antonito will operate as
the Toltec Gorge Limited.
Thursday’s train consisted of two ex-Kennecott GP39-2s, ILSX 1390 and
1389 – along with High Iron Travel’s Caritas, an open-end observation
car that started off life as Frisco’s Pierre LeClede. On board were
four individuals key to bringing this dream to reality: Ed Ellis
(president of Iowa Pacific Holdings, LLC, the parent company of the
SL&RG), Don Shank (head of the Denver & Rio Grande Historical
Foundation and partner in the San Luis Express venture), Frank Turner
(president of the C&TS Management Corp – the group to be operating
the C&TS this year), and Bob Shank (who will manage the San Luis
Express operation). Also invited were a number of prominent local
individuals, as well as individuals from the press covering the event.
The morning started with speeches and a ribbon cutting ceremony at the
old Alamosa depot at 0900h. Concluded about thirty minutes later, the
invited guests climbed aboard for the three hour trip over the pass to
La Veta.
0830h finds our train at the old D&RGW Alamosa Depot, with ILSX 1390 and 1389 on the front. The guests are starting to gather on the back side of the equipment.
The passenger car for today’s trip will be 800045, High Iron Travel’s Caritas
Everything coupled together – let the ceremonies begin!
A sign on the flank of 1390 announces the two new trains to start this summer – the San Luis Express over the La Veta line, and the Toltec Gorge Limited, linking Alamosa to the C&TS connection at Antonito
Alamosa speeches and ribbon-cutting over, the train gets underway eastbound around 0930h. Here it is just east of the Alamosa east yard.
The first 25 miles out of Alamosa look roughly like this – arid, nearly desert-like plain covered in scrub.
Before entering the mountains on the east side of the valley, the line traverses two small towns – Blanca (seen here) and Fort Garland
East of Blanca, it’s still flat, but at least the mountains are just ahead.
East of Fort Garland, the scenery starts to change as the line follows Wagon Creek up towards Veta Pass
Near here, the old narrow gauge route used to branch north to go over old La Veta Pass, near where the highway is today. Very near here was Russell – the second one, the original being up the narrow gauge a few miles.
The new route launches off to the south, passing through remote, beautiful (but private) property with few roads. This is the last we’ll see of the train until the east side.
The first sighting of the train on the east side is high on a hillside above Occidental.
The railroad makes a long u-turn through the canyon at Occidental to descend from the pass. Here, on the eastern side, the train runs along in the shadow of the westernmost of the two Spanish Peaks
Just another fill on the way down from the east side of the pass.
Nearly down, the brakes are showing they’re a little hot from the trip. The nearly perfect pyramid mountain (at least from this angle) in the background is Mount Mestas.
I didn’t quite beat them back to the crossing in La Veta, but here’s the special at the very western edge of town.
Arriving at La Veta, the whole area seems very excited about this new train, and it seems everyone for miles around turned out for the event. Parking was at such a premium that I had to park three blocks away and missed the train coming in…
The La Veta town reception was nothing short of phenominal. Pulling
into town at 1242h, the train was greeted by around 400 residents and
interested individuals, many wearing red at the prompting of local
officials to mark a “red letter day”. (Sorry I couldn’t participate – I
got the press release, but I don’t own anything red…) The local
school band was out to play for the arrival, the fire department had
their trucks out on display, and there wasn’t a parking spot to be had
for nearly three blocks by the time I arrived. Estimates I’ve seen
after the fact put 400-500 people at the celebration. Once again, there
were a few speeches, followed by another ribbon cutting, followed by a
bit of singing and cheering by the crowd.
Once the crowd had thinned out in about an hour, the train was turned
on the wye and pointed back to Alamosa. Around 1430h, everyone was
back on board and the return trip got underway. The train made about
equal time heading back, taking 3:15 to return to Alamosa just slightly
after sunset. Upon arrival, the SL&RG’s usual operations were
evident, as the turn over to Walsenburg was in the yard just waiting to
leave as soon as the special cleared up.
First on the agenda after arriving was another ribbon-cutting ceremony with local and railroad officials. Here’s Steven Perkins, President of the La Veta Cuchara Chamber of Commerce, with the mic. Ed Ellis, President of Iowa Pacific (the SL&RG’s parent company) is on the right in the blue blazer.
With the crowd starting to thin after about twenty minutes, they back up to move onto the siding for turning the train around.
Backing onto the wye with the Caritas. The wye tail is only long enough for the car, so the power will drop it and then come down the other leg to tie on for the return trip.
Down the wye they go… As for the mystery guy with his rear in the shot, he was some sort of official videographer along for the trip.
All turned and coupled up, they’re ready to pull around the wye and back into the depot to pick up the guests returning to Alamosa
Here we go – the ILSX 1389 (ex-Kennecott GP39-2 797) is slowly brought over the light 90 pound rail on the west leg of the La Veta wye
Back on the main at the depot platform, they start loading up the returning passengers. The depot is the original D&RG structure, now the town hall.
The south side of the La Veta depot
And the north (track) side, looking southeast. The banner reads: La Veta Welcomes SL&RG!
A few of the NARCOA folks are here too – the Rocky Mountain Division is trying to work out a motorcar ride over the La Veta line in the near future.
Out of La Veta at 1430h, we see the train starting upgrade a few miles west of town.
With the Caritas blocking the crossing, the train comes to a stop. (Yes, I’m the guy that tripped over the wire buried in the weeds and went flying only to land shoulder first on the gravel road.)
Turns out, one of the Caritas’ generators needs a jump. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any jumper cables, but Becky Osterwald (daughter of Doris Osterwald, author of the D&S and C&TS mile-by-mile guides) was able to help out.
All hooked up, it apparently works after a few minutes of charging and the train is off westward again
Nearly two hours later, at 1630h, the train comes into view once again where US 160 and the railway join up on the west side. They pull to a stop to let two passengers down from the cab so they can catch a ride back over the pass by car.
A few miles to the west, the line rounds an impressive few curves while following the Sangre de Cristo Creek watershed.
While the line might be almost to the valley floor, there’s still some impressive scenery just east of Fort Garland.
Here’s a piece of 85 pound CF&I rail from 1896 in the siding at Fort Garland. This was likely installed even before the line was converted to standard gauge!
Coming into Fort Garland, passing over the east switch
Here we are west of Blanca, where the San Luis Southern used to interchange with the Rio Grande. Today, a few tracks remain in the weeds, and the SLS’s one-of-a-kind homebuilt diesel rusts away in the weeds a few hundred yards south of here.
While waiting on the train between Blanca and Alamosa, the sun finally slipped behind the mountains. I just happened to like the shot, so I threw it in. Honest, it’s a sunset, no matter how much it looks like somebody nuked Antonito.
Once the sun goes, it goes very quickly because of the mountains. However, when 1389 showed up a minute later, there was still sun hitting the top of Blanca Peak in the distance.
Passing the last few miles in twilight
The day’s special run gets back to Alamosa at 1745h. Waiting in the yard is the eastbound turn that will run over to the UP interchange at Walsenburg.
Back at the downtown Alamosa yard, Caritas pulls across State Street. Literally a minute after they clear the switch, 804 and crew will head east with the day’s freight.
Reportedly, when service starts up on May 24, the train will consist
of 1950s-era ex-Long Island Railroad coaches. Hopefully they’ll consider
adding an open air car, as it would be greatly appreciated by those of
us who like to stand outside and take in the scenery. The talk on
Thursday was that the D&RGHF’s SP B30-7 will provide power for at
least one of the runs, but that’s not from any official source, just the
railfan rumor mill. Even if not, the rumor mill also says that the
SL&RG has a number of rebuilt units coming that will actually be
painted in an SLRG paint scheme, not just the mix-and-match lease fleet
that the RailAmerica version of the SL&RG used.
This is an incredible opportunity, and I do hope that the trains becomes a success. Other than a handful of private car trips over the pass, no regularly-scheduled passenger train has made the journey in nearly fifty years. The La Veta Pass line is one of the least accessible on the former Rio Grande system, as it passes through a rugged, remote region with few roads, and largely inaccessible otherwise because it’s private property. Over this stretch lie tunnels, steep grades of 3%, sharp curves, and spectacular views to all sides. The run to Antonito should be an excellent complement to the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic, and hopefully with be good for both railroads as well as the tourism trade in the surrounding communities. For more information about riding the new line, see their website at http://www.alamosatrain.com. Hopefully on May 25, I’ll be able to post another one of these trip reports, except this time from the point of view as a passenger.
All photographs in this trip report were taken with a Canon EOS 20D using either a Canon 28-105mm USM or a Canon 75-300mm f4-5.3 IS/USM.
This work is copyright 2024 by Nathan D. Holmes, but all text and images are licensed and reusable under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license. Basically you’re welcome to use any of this as long as it’s not for commercial purposes, you credit me as the source, and you share any derivative works under the same license. I’d encourage others to consider similar licenses for their works.
