Snow
Plows on the Railroad Colorado's
mountains receive a lot of snow during most winters, so clearing
snow off the tracks becomes an important and very expensive
part of normal operations of our railroads.
There are stories of one main
line railroad that spent over 40% of their annual operating
costs fighting snow. There are pictures of a large
snow plow being pushed by 7 large steam locomotives, in an
attempt to clear the line of snow.
This was apparently the normal
procedure in many cases, since snow drifts often reached 30 to
40 feet in height, sometimes requiring the use of dynamite to
blast the drifts down into the spinning blades of the rotary
snow plows.
It appears that those old steam
powered, coal fired snow plows are still occasionally used by
even the standard gauge railroads of today, often requiring 4
diesel locomotives to provide pushing power.
No, the diesels aren't
necessarily that much more powerful, the fact is that most
railroads now have either abandoned the extremely high altitudes
formerly necessary to get over mountain passes by drilling
tunnels through many mountains, and the installation of snow
sheds has helped enormously in certain areas.
|
|
|
Sparky's
Colorado Vacation, Page 5
by Sparky |
Chama,
New Mexico
August 16,
2003. We arrived in Chama in late afternoon and checked
into The Branding Iron Motel, and kicked back to relax until
dinner time. There is also a restaurant next door, also
named the Branding Iron Restaurant, and the food was not
extraordinary, but very good for a small town tourist
restaurant. Good prices, good service and friendly people.
After dinner we
went to check out the rail yard, in case we might get lost getting
there in the morning, cuz it was clear on the north end of town,
about 2 miles away. The train didn't run on that day, so the
reil yard was quiet, except for a few guys working on things and
some camera bugs milling around taking pictures, so Jim was able
to take a bunch of pictures, as shown below.
Photos #1 & #2
show two views of the Chama train station and ticket office.
Photo #3 informs
you not to drive your vehicle, especially one of those noisy,
smoky, diesel pickups, up on the platform.
Photo #4 shows the
world famous Chama coaling tower, which hoists coal from a dump
alongside the tracks up to the top, so locomotives can be filled
with coal quickly. There was also a loader sitting next to
the coal pile, so maybe they use that in cast the tower breaks
down.
Photos #5 & #6
show one of the narrow gauge snow plows available for use in the
winter, while #7 shows the "Economy" firebox door
housing inside the cab. Does this mean that the
"Economy" door saved $2.00 per snowplow when they built
it, or does it mean that that special door provides some
supernatural power that insures better coal mileage when plowing
snow?
Photo #8 shows a
small gasoline powered yard locomotive, presumably used to shuttle
cars around when making up a train.
Photo #9 shows an
old locomotive much in need of repair, while #10 shows the repair
crew hard at work.
Photo #11 would
appear to be several cases of empty Chama-size beer cans.
Photo #12 reveals
that this guy must be such a big rail fan that he takes his own
putt-putt car along with him so he can "borrow" the
tracks when the train isn't running. What do you think?
|
Sparky's
Chama, New Mexico Rail Yard Photo Album |
1. Chama, N. M. train station
|
2. Back of Chama train station
|
3. This means you, too
|
4. Chama coaling tower
|
5. Side view of snow plow
|
6. Snow plow cutting blades
|
7. "Economy" firebox door
|
8. Gas powered yard locomotive
|
9. Repairing old locomotive
|
10. Relaxing repair crew
|
11. Chama-sized beer cans
|
12. Bring your own putt-putt
|
|
In
case you're wondering why they have such a big snow plow, plus
another one not shown above, you can look at the picture of the Snow Gauge
at right that
sits atop Cumbres Pass, at the 10,000 foot elevation. It
measures up to 12 feet, and there are usually snow drifts that
stack up much higher than that in certain valleys.
There are quite a
few additional specialty railroad cars on the property, some of
them quite unique, such as several other kinds of flanger plows
which act similar to a simple tractor plow. In some cases
they used a flanger plow with a set of pneumatically operated
wings that could be moved outward to further widen a cut that had
been plowed earlier.
They also have a
steam crane that would be used to lift heavy objects or to rescue
a train car or locomotive that may have derailed or fallen down a
cliff.
The railroad owns
numerous additional locomotives and specialized cars that are
currently undergoing repair or restoration.
You can find out
more about the railroad and Chama by clicking on their website
below:
Cumbres
& Toltec Gorge Scenic Railroad
|
|
Chama,
New Mexico
Main street looks a lot today as
it did in the 1890's. When the Denver and Rio Grande (D&RG)
railroad arrived in January of 1881, it brought with it a yard
full of structures and an economy that would help support the
town for the next hundred years or so. The rail yard has
been constantly evolving due to modifications created by fire
and changes to the railroad equipment and operations.
In 1881 the Chama yard contained
a 6-Stall wood-framed roundhouse, a section house, and
depot. A coal platform was used to fuel the engines in the
beginning. This was similar to ones used along other parts
of the narrow gauge line. The remains of one of the coal
bins can still be seen at Osier, but the rest of the 1881 yard
structures have been lost.
Fire destroyed much of Chama and
most of the rail yard in 1899. The stockpiles of coal for
the steam locomotives caught fire, then it was just a matter of
time before the ties beneath the rails burned and the rails
warped. After the 1899 fire, a 9-stall brick round house
was constructed in the yard. Two of those stalls are still
standing at the current roundhouse. A new depot replaced
the original two-story building and remains today.
In 1908 fire again devastated
Chama, followed by another in 1909.
In 1910 the yard was improved by
the addition of some inner yard tracks, the rebuilt station, and
a coaling trestle. Sometime in the 1920's, the water tank
was relocated to its current location.
In 1924 the large timber coal
tower was built, and this beautiful structure remains
today.
In 1925, fire struck again.
Remote towns such as this were built mostly of wood and seldom
had adequate fire fighting equipment or water, so when a fire
started, it quickly spread. The most recent fire occurred
in 1988.
Chama
Website
|
|