I love historic steam train excursions and Kent is a great sport about joining in whenever I find them.  Today our refurbished passenger car pulled by powerful 2-8-2, narrow gage, coal-fired, steam locomotive, engine 484.  It was built around 1925 by Baldwin Locomotive.

Love those chug-chug and hiss sounds of it working.  Love the whistle and the clang signaling to all what’s to happen next.  We board in Chama, NM for a 64-mile ride to Antonito, CO along a rail line built in the late 1800s.   The route passes through steep-walled river-carved ravines and broad U-shaped valleys cut by glaciers, the rail bed sometimes carved into cliff faces or twisting past steep rocky cuts; most notable Toltec Gorge.  We cross Cumbres Pass through the San Juan Mountains at 10,015ft elevation.  From Chama to Osier (about half way) the route spends much of its mileage climbing, including plenty of 4% grade so we have lots of opportunity to hear and watch the engine really work.  Best views come in the stacked tight curves laid out to make the climb without exceeding possible grade.  There are tunnels and trestles of course.  We spot wildlife too; elk, some a binocular distance and even a small band bedded down just 100 ft or so from the track.  There are pronghorn, a mule deer, and prairie dog.  An earlier trip saw black bear but not us.  Scenery is spectacular nearly the whole ride leaving me to comment more than once,” I could live here”, as we roll past 1800 homesteads and modern cabins dotting the wide valleys.  Sage brush plains near Antonito are not amazing to look at but they do provide opportunity for pronghorn sighting.

We stop for lunch at Osier, very well done “What the Truck” catering.

One more fun thing to watch (if you are a steam train enthusiast of course) here at Osier, an engine change.  We meet the Chama bound train pulled by the older 463 engine along the siding and watch the choreographed exchange as 848 drops our cars then backs off the main rail.

463 drops her cars then backs onto our track.  848 maneuvers to lock onto the Chama bound cars and 463 backs in to lock onto our cars.  Smooth as silk and now both trains are idling ready to go on our way.  It seems the more powerful 848 is kept on the Chama side of the pass running that half of the route.   The older locomotive, 463; owned by the city of Antonito, runs the less demanding Antonito side.

Don’t miss this ride.  It is one of the greatest scenic railroad excursions we have gone on.