See item 13b: http://train.sbseiber.com/CTM2023Nov11.html It is one of four ordered by the ore-hauling White Pass & Yukon RR from MLW/ Bombardier in the early eighties and then refused when ore shipments ended, but accepted later by the tourist-hauling line. The other three were bought by US Gypsum's 3' gauge operation in California, one later wrecked. Eric Kreszl photo (all photos are attributed at the bottom on RR Picture Archive).

Not a MLW HR412W
this designation in rrpicturesarchives is just wrong...maybe because the real designation
is not available there.

It ia a Bombardier DL-535EW.

https://www.thedieselshop.us/DataDL535EW.HTML

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/locoli ... R&mid=1014

Man, that thing looks like someone swatted a spider with the blueprints, and the production floor incorporated that into the design...

I don't really agree with the logic or reasoning for buying this locomotive. Part of the charm of the C&TS is that the entire thing is steam. The fact they have a protect locomotive fired up and ready to go is part of what makes C&TS special. The fact they use steam for work trains is part of that too.

C&TS will still be a great place to visit and a great ride, but a little change like this does make a difference in the historical nature of the place.

Spoken like a true armchair preservationist, Crescent. Do you realize that keeping an extra steam locomotive hot significantly adds to the overhead costs and eats away at an engine's serviceable days, not to mention crew time to keep under steam as well as an additional crew member (fireman) for any moves? If you've ever been in the ticket office when angry customers are demanding refunds because a train had to be annulled, then you'd realize that a diesel is the second best option. Most visitors will be pleased to be able to ride, even if steam is down because of an emergency. Sure, some will want refunds regardless, but I maintain that the vast majority of the public will still ride, regardless of power.

Another point the armchair enthusiasts miss: Isn't the Cumbres & Toltec like the slip side of the Durango & Silverton, and therefore subject to the same potential, ahem, issues if you operate steam power during dry season? Especially as dry conditiona are expected to worsen in upcoming years?

Even granted that a legacy 251 may not be the poster child for spark-free exhaust without careful countermeasures -- I see quite reaonable prudence in doing the same thing the D&S is doing to assure operation no matter how bad fire danger becomes.

Not to mention that in the event of a fire in the shop area, a diesel can rescue whatever equipment is in harm's way.

I was just at C&TS a month ago, and saw for myself the steamers being kept hot at both Chama and Antonito. I asked about them, and got told that it was emergency protect power at each end. I asked "what about that GE center-cab switcher?" parked at Chama. They implied it was barely powerful enough to get out of its own way, never mind pulling an entire train even mostly downhill should they be so lucky. As nice as it was to be able to shoot D&RG 315 under steam for "no good reason," I left Colorado muttering "the best damn thing they could do is find some big three-foot diesels and configure them as turn-key emergency power, even if they have to order new hybrids....."

This thought was underscored by a medical emergency aboard our train eastbound from Osier to Antonito. I think it was altitude sickness giving the patient heart problems. After perhaps a half-hour of administering pretty much every available oxygen canister on board to the patient, as I kept eyeballing the defibrillator, they radioed in to Antonito to send out a truck to expedite the patient back to town. They stopped at a crossing in what I can best describe as "the middle of nowhere," where the only "civilization" to be seen for ten miles in any direction was the track, the "Enter New Mexico" sign trackside, and a semblance of a goat track resembling a road. As I watched in amazement, a huge Chevy waddled its way over the rocks in the distance and finally made its way to the "crossing," where the passenger and two family members were gingerly loaded into the truck, which then turned and tip-toed across the rocky road. The one employee/volunteer who rode out on the truck had to ride the train back into town with the rest of us, and we arrived in town just in time to see the ambulance departing the station, presumably for the county hospital in La Jara, fourteen miles north.

This is what people from urban and suburban areas don't appreciate:

The county Antonito is in, Conejos County, has a population of about 7,700, according to the Census Bureau.
The county Chama is in, Rio Arriba County, N.M., is bigger than the entire state of Connecticut and has about 40,000.

I had a problem with my rental car en route to Chama, and had to take matters into my own hands instead of calling the rental "roadside assistance." We later calculated that had I even been able to get a cell phone signal, the nearest roadside assistance they could have sent to me was 165 miles one-way--provided they ever could have FOUND us.........

UPDATE: I just checked both Google Maps and my photos from the passenger rescue (none of the passenger out of respect), and noticed that even though the crossing is "in the middle of nowhere" and has no good reason to exist other than access to the tracks and a spot further west along the line, it HAS one of those blue "crossing emergency" signs and crossing ID number!

Why call someone a name just because you don’t agree with them. That’s the biggest problem we have in this country. Let’s communicate with maturity.

This is a “preservation” board not a “running a business” board. From a preservation standpoint alone, this is a loss, in my humble opinion.

This forum needs a "Like" button!

And to second Christopher Stone's point, this forum also needs a "laugh" button. Are you serious, CZ? If your museum/tourist railroad isn't operating with sound business decisions, then you won't have to worry long about the preservation part...

I dunno if I consider "armchair preservationist" a slur or not.
Not every preservation action is carried out by greasy-overalls-wearing wrench monkeys. We also have people who shuffle paperwork and books and periodicals in archives, people who snap up stuff on eBay and have it sent direct to a museum or library, guys who take home stacks of slides to scan every week, and guys who "schmooze" with the big-money donors making them believe the museum or rescue is worthy of their moneybags. I myself have executed at least one major archive save just with keystrokes, a credit card, and a later car trip, and the luck of another important official just being in the right place at the right time.

Do you honestly think that finding a way to dramatically reduce the wear and tear on original railroad artifacts a century or so old is "a major loss"? This goes over to me like the people who lament the dramatically declining ability, and skyrocketing costs, of "preserving the traditions" of big game hunting in Africa, Scotland, and elsewhere, along with the dramatic damages to the ecosystem that were imposed years ago to keep hunting estates full of big deer, elephants, and the like.

It would be all well and good if we actually hurried the inevitable day when new-build replica steamers will have to take over the main duties of both the C&TS and the Durango & Silverton, as well as the East Broad Top, WW&F, and elsewhere. (There's an obvious precedent-setter: The Ffestiniog Railway/Welsh Highland Railway in Wales with their new-build Fairlies and importation of SAR Garratts.) Hell, I mean, I happily overlooked the fact that the C&TS coaches we rode are almost all new adaptations and not century-old coaches, or the plastic coffee cups given to first-class patrons aboard the "fake" parlor car, and we were busloads of tourists rather than a few people with no other means of transportation through the area...... is it really too much to ask that a "turnkey" diesel replace the constant wear on a steamer parked out of the way at either end of the line?

I well appreciated the "time capsule" experience of wandering the Chama shops area, experiencing much of what narrow-gauge railroading seventy-five years ago would have been like, as long as you didn't look too closely at a few modern tweaks here and there, much like wandering the EBT shops area or even occasional places like Ringoes, Keighley, Gettysburg yard, Bridgnorth, Kempton, Aviemore, Goathland, etc. But I do remembering muttering to my wife in Cumbres, "enjoy it while we can--it can't possibly last like this forever no matter how hard they try......"

Lets look at it this way. The railroad typically runs around 160 days or more per year. Less 5 days or 10 for monthly inspections, that still means around 150 operating days having two engines hot and running. Adding two more sitting as protection, with only 5 locomotives, you are going to run out of operating days long before the 1472 mandated limit. So, why add operating days for ballast trains and work trains just to begin with? Running a ballast train often means leaving a locomotive out on line with a hostler overnight as well, and possibly having to run for water at some point. A diesel can be shut down in a siding overnight and left, and fueled and watered at any road crossing (not that there are many). The smaller diesel engines can be left in Antonito, and can be counted on to get a rescue car or two up the hill on the east side, or an entire train down the hill back to Antonito, while the 114 in Chama can easily fill in at any spot if necessary. Given that the cost of the protection power, without a crew has been stated in other sources as about $1200 per day, just in the cost of fuel and water, and operating days, it will not take long to repay the cost of the locomotive, shipping it to Antonito, and getting it running. It is a good business decision, and a good historical decision because it prolongs the life of machines either already over 100 years old or approching that date and uses equipment with a readily available parts source.

No. Calling you an "armchair preservationist" isn't name calling. Calling you "stupid" for your opinion would be name calling.

Don't complain about "maturity" when you fail to engage the substantive reasons given for the purchase, and instead whine about alleged name calling and immaturely fail to see the connections between sound business decisions and continued existence of preservation.

If the C&TTRR and D&SNGRR need more motive power why not see what the authorities in Guatemala and El Salvador have. I was there, several times in the last 20 some years or so and all have lots of steam (such as German made mikados [in the interior of Guatemala] and 2-8-0s in El Salvador and both with US build engines in Guatemala City). I believe this a gold mine of three foot stuff that now could now be had at rock bottom prices.