Seen live on Fox News this morning:

"Six snowmobilers missing in the snowy Colorado mountains called for help Monday and reported they were hungry but alive, authorities said.

Crews were on their way to meet the six, who are all from New Mexico, said Barbara Smith, a spokeswoman for the Conejos County Sheriff's Department.

The snowmobilers called 911 from an isolated and snowbound train station and said they were cold but otherwise all right, Smith said. They had been missing since Friday amid heavy snow in the area.

The snowmobilers had been missing near 10,222-foot Cumbres Pass just north of the Colorado-New Mexico border. The area is about 200 miles south of Denver and 60 miles northwest of Taos, N.M.

The search had been hindered by heavy snow and bad roads. As much as 4 feet of snow fell in the area since Friday, the National Weather Service said.

Smith said they took refuge at Osier Station, a small wooden building that serves as summertime stop on the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad, a tourist line.

The snowmobilers were Jason Groen, 36, his wife, Shannon, 31, and daughter, Aspen, 14, said Betty Groen, Jason's stepmother. Groen said they were snowmobiling with Mike Martin, one of Groen's employees, his wife, Missy, and their son, Jessie, 13. The families had left on a snowmobile trip Friday morning and expected to be back that evening, Betty Groen said."

What no rotary to the rescue? Would that not be a great CNN story? "!00 year old snow plow to the rescue!" (At the snowmobilers expense of course)

Let's see: CaTS RR has one, not working. CRRM has one, not working. BNSF I think have two that do work but are in Montana? Who else has a rotary, working or not?

Robin,

When did the OY go down?

They use her every spring to open the line.

Rich C.

Rich, I think OY went down in 2004 or before. I went to the Friends website trying to get a handle on exactly when and why. I have heard ideas of getting it worked on to run a couple years back but no one came up with the bucks.

The White Pass has one, fully functional save the need for new tubes if memory serves.

I seem to recall that in sometime in the early sixties, the Colorado National Guard rescued a stranded train crew up there by dropping supplies from a c-47 and then sending in some Weasels to fetch them. If there is no rotary available, I believe we can find a flyable plane and a couple of tracks.

GME

I am out of the loop. I didn't realize that it had been a while since the rotary cleared the line in the spring.... : (

It's been 10 years since a rotary went over Cumbres...

Steamtown NHS has a rotary, from the LIRR! Mid-Continent has one, formerly operable.

I heard the reason that a rotary is no longer used on the C&TS is because a mikado had a rather nasty derailment the last time they did.

Joshua

Hi C&TS has two, OM which is non-working and OY which is.
Doug

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=205304

Ouch!

--Jim

I think a good bit of the reason for not using the rotaries is that they're best suited for removing fresh snow. On the C&TS the snow had been accumulated (and compacted) over the winter and was much harder to deal with.

I think only the engine pilot plow and flanger were being used when the engine derailed.