Springtime in the Rockies

In May of 2010, a charter was held in which D&RGW K-36 489 was painted with a dark olive green boiler jacket. This was 60 years after the 489 was painted with the green boiler jacket for a Rocky Mountain Railroad Club charter in May of 1950. Members of the club even brought the drum from the 1950 charter to put on our caboose. While there wasn't any prototypical passenger cars on the C&TS to recreate the actual club charter, this charter is ran as if the 489 got assigned a freight before having its boiler painted back to black. The charter was organized by Russ Sperry and was coined "Springtime in the Rockies" charter. It left Antonito just after lunch and ran to Osier and returned. This provided great sunlight for photos on the east side of the line that most charters don't get. We had dinner at Osier and then ran back to Antonito in the dark without runbys.

I somehow convinced my Dad that I needed to go on this trip and my sister and girlfriend (now wife) tagged along. We also hit up the Durango and Silverton before heading back south to Texas.

Day 1 / 2 / 3

• Day 1 - Arrive in Chama mid morning and rest / railfan the passenger trains.
• Day 2 - Railfan the morning passenger train then the "Springtime in the Rockies" charter.
• Day 3 - See the morning passenger train leave and then drive to Durango.

Day 3 / 4 / 5 / 6

• Day 3 - See the Durango trains return.
• Day 4 - Ride the Durango & Silverton
• Day 5 - Drive to and explore Silverton
• Day 6 - Return Home

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