C&TS 50th Anniversary - Rotary OY Run
The Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad fired up their 1923 steam Rotary Snowplow OY in honor for the railroad's 50th Anniversary celebration. This is the first time the OY has been operated in 23 years and is considered by most to be one of the finest shows in railroading. This event was one of those bucket list items I was sure I would never get to check off.
The event took place at the end of February / early March 2020 and was to kick off a year of celebration for the 50th anniversary. We were lucky to just get the event in before all of the shut downs that happened due to Covid-19. The rest of the 50th Anniversary festivities look to have been postponed until 2021 as of the time of this writing.
I joined a friend of mine, Jason Rose, on this adventure. Jason is a key member of the Friends of the Cumbres and Toltec and was part of the crew that helped run the event. The Friends is an organization of volunteers that help with the stewardship and preservation of the historic property. More information on the Friend can be found on their website!
Jason also does excellent trip reports and you can find his over this trip at this link. It fills in a lot of the details I probably missed in my write up! He also was gracious enough to put together a video from the footage the two of us took during the trip. The video just ads so much more drama to the scene than a still photo can for something as impressive as a steam rotary snow plow! The video can be found below or by using this link.
The other big celebration for the 50th Anniversary with the Victorian Iron Horse Round Up which included a gathering of 5 steam locomotives built before 1900. Its trip report can be found here.
Day 1 / 2
Day 3
Day 4 / 5
The event took place at the end of February / early March 2020 and was to kick off a year of celebration for the 50th anniversary. We were lucky to just get the event in before all of the shut downs that happened due to Covid-19. The rest of the 50th Anniversary festivities look to have been postponed until 2021 as of the time of this writing.
I joined a friend of mine, Jason Rose, on this adventure. Jason is a key member of the Friends of the Cumbres and Toltec and was part of the crew that helped run the event. The Friends is an organization of volunteers that help with the stewardship and preservation of the historic property. More information on the Friend can be found on their website!
Jason also does excellent trip reports and you can find his over this trip at this link. It fills in a lot of the details I probably missed in my write up! He also was gracious enough to put together a video from the footage the two of us took during the trip. The video just ads so much more drama to the scene than a still photo can for something as impressive as a steam rotary snow plow! The video can be found below or by using this link.
The other big celebration for the 50th Anniversary with the Victorian Iron Horse Round Up which included a gathering of 5 steam locomotives built before 1900. Its trip report can be found here.
Day 1 / 2
- Day 1 (Thursday) - Leave Houston early, arrive in Chama, NM
- Day 2 (Friday) - Perform some work for the Friends in Chama and pre Rotary run festivities.
Day 3
- Day 3 (Saturday) - Rotary OY Run from Chama, NM to the New Mexico / Colorado state line.
Day 4 / 5
- Day 5 (Sunday) - Rotary OY Run from the New Mexico / Colorado state line to Cumbres Pass summit.
- Day 6 (Monday) - Drive back to Houston