When I met up with a small group of fellow Golden Spike members in Alamosa, Colorado, we enjoyed riding on three railroads in five days. One of those railroads was the Rio Grande Scenic Railroad. We left the Alamosa station on a clear sunny day and headed over La Veta Pass to the small town of La Veta.
This was a short train of only three cars, but very interesting cars they were. The last car is a complete restored lounge/observation car from the train City Of New Orleans.
We had full access to the train, but the car we spent most of our time in was the center car. This was a car built in 1952 for the Santa Fe Railroad as a dome/diner car. The dome went the full length of the top deck and the entire lower portion was the kitchen and dinning area.
The Rio Grande Scenic Railroad is not only a tourist railroad, but also an active freight railroad. There is a large agriculture industry in the Alamosa valley as well as a few industrial sites. They run freight at night and passenger traffic during the day. The freight cars go down to the main line of the BNSF Railroad to be taken to their destination. They also do a good business of buying obsolete passenger equipment and restoring them to "like new" condition and sell them to individuals and other tourist railroads. While the rest of our group were having a grand time in the dome car, I went back to the check out the City of New Orleans car. I had the whole car to myself. It was like brand new! The center portion of the car was a bar and had a short menu of food, but the rest of the car was set up with a few tables and many comfortable chairs.
It was strange riding in a beautiful rail car with nobody else in it. It rode so quit and smooth that it gave the impression that the car was stationary and the scenery was moving by the windows. I took many photos through the center window at the back end of the car.
Here are a couple of views from that window.
We kept gaining altitude until we reached around 9,000 feet. It was here that we were all served a delicious meal of baked salmon from the kitchen down below.
The train stopped to do a "run-by". We all got off the train and it backed up about half a mile and then came back up the hill at full speed, making with the smoke, and rolled by us as we took pictures.
Then it was down hill all the way to the La Veta station.
They uncoupled the engine from the train. They put the engine on a Wye to turn it around.
On the way back to Alamosa, we stopped one more time
so the train could do another "run-by".
so the train could do another "run-by".
Then it was through the tunnel and on back to the Alamosa station.
It was a beautiful and pleasant 6-hr. train ride with friends that will
not soon be forgotten!
These were just some of over 200 photos that I took
while on this ride.
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