Just got news $1200 for the rotary excursion.

Kevin, one small correction, the special projects department is not part of the friends but is part of The Cumbres And Toltec Scenic Railroad. For the rotary’s return to service we partnered with the friends to achieve the work in a more timely collaborative fashion. The friends were responsible for the car body wood work, while the Railroad did the mechanical.

Best

Stathi

Closing a public road to take photos of a train? Seems crazy to me.

I had no problem knowing that others were getting photos of the 611 with a freight consist, they weren’t getting the quality of shots and all the run-by’s I got.

One of my favorite shots was the 90 pulling up by the 382 that i got after the morning charter on the public platform. I wouldn’t have gotten that if SRR was a jerk and hung a bunch of vests or whatever was suggested a few posts up.

Hi Stathi,

Thanks for the correction. I fixed my original post. I actually wasn't aware of that FB site before yesterday (I'm only an occasional Facebook lurker.....I don't even have an account), and I only found it based on a post on the NGDF when I asked folks what was going on with respect to ticket sales for the rotary event.

Fortunately, my number in line was low enough (#150) that I was able to call the RR and purchase a ticket yesterday. I've done just about every major charter there for the last 10 years, so there was no way I wanted to miss this one. I have seen a rotary run back in 2011 at the WP&YR....only 17 people went. It was the greatest show on rails.

https://www.railpictures.net/photo/521415/

Really looking forward to Feb 2020. Hope there is lots of snow to plow!

Thanks,

/Kevin Madore

So they apparently operated the rotary today, hadn't seen it mentioned here. Tristan Wenger photos from the Narrow Gauge Discussion Forum facebook page.

Ummm it was the photo charter, mentioned all over the place in this thread...?

Yes I should have looked back at the thread I necro'd. I sort of meant "recently" though, I'm surprised there wasn't more chatter about it here in the last week or so. They made the photographers wear safety vests and there were so many there it looked like a French transit workers' strike.

Somebody sent me a facebook link last night/this AM, real short but how awesome to have been a crew member. I can smell the smell of coal, oil and steam. That to me would of been a life changing moment to recall till my memory forgot that too. Awesome stuff. Regards, John.

Not many people are talking about it because only about 10 cars were chasing the rotary (with the exclusion of the 4 buses of 150 photographers for the special and the dozen or so support vehicles). Contrary to the drama and threats of highway closures, tickets by State Patrol, 200 chasers, etc, nothing was like that. There was about a 1/4 mile section of highway that was sectioned off for the photography crew and buses at their locations. To pass that you needed a escort by the Highway Patrol to get through it for safety. With the exception of the 1/4 mile the buses were using you were free to park and film anywhere along the road.

The rotary was brought out steamed up as a static display on Friday. Saturday the rotary, two locomotives, and a few cars steamed to the State line of Colorado. The weather was warm and sunny on Saturday, and with the exception of a few stalls and plenty of wheel slip, the train performed very well.

Sunday the train continued from the Colorado border to the top of Cumbres pass with the same two locomotives and rail cars. Weather was overcast, cold, and light snow. Due to the geography, few locations were available for photographers as well as parking. Water towers were frozen requiring fire trucks to fill tenders. The train struggled up the pass with nearly constant wheel slip. Heavy snow was at the top of the pass. The train made it to the summit requiring another water stop despite just filling the tenders 2 miles back.

Plans were to have the rotary come another few miles, but there was thick ice over the rails just beyond the crossing. The event ended there. Did not hear of any mechanical problems with any equipment during the 3 day event.