Cumbres and Toltec Historic Railroad

We arrive at Antonito Colorado for an all day trip on this historic narrow gauge railroad. It will take us up into the Sangre de Cristo mountains, over Cumbres Pass and on down a four percent grade into Chama, NM. 

This is the car we rode in. It had nice tables and comfortable chairs, complimentary beverages and a donut snack as we got going.

A lot of time was spent riding in this car and listening to the docent.

We stopped for a delicious lunch in Osier Colorado. We chose the soup and salad bar with three soups, salads of all kinds and dessert. I chose the buttermilk pie. My, my. So good. 

This steam event is called a Blowout, cleaning out the boiler. We all got a shower. 

One of the several water towers we passed, only stopping at one to refill. The load of coal in the tender was hand scooped into the firebox. The engineer was on the coach ride back to Antonito and said five tons of coal were used. He was pretty grimy with coal dust even though he wasn't actually scooping coal, just nearby. He had to love the job as hard work as it must have been. 

After a long day, we were windburned and sunburned but happy campers as the Tacoma pulled Luci south through the Rio Grande Valley to Ojo Caliente and camp.