Press "Enter" to skip to content

The Way We Really Were

Photo by Virginia McConnell Simmons
Photo by Virginia McConnell Simmons

By Virginia McConnell Simmons

April showers often brought more snow than May flowers for I-think-I-can narrow-gauge railroads. Winter blizzards and snow slides often upended estimated times of arrival, and in January 1884 a D&RG train was marooned for two weeks east of Cumbres Pass, while passengers cooked dwindling food and even washed clothes on the coach’s stove until rescuers arrived. A century later on the pass, on May 25, 1983, a rotary plow, pushed by several locomotives, was still clearing drifts in preparation for the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad’s tourist season.

[InContentAdTwo]