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STEAM TRAINS

GALLOPIN' GEESE

LOS PINOS RESPITE A train stops for water at the 1880's Los Pinos water tank on a wet, misty afternoon before resuming its climb to Cumbres Pass in southern Colorado. Order this Image

How these photos were made.

NIGHT in OLD DURANGO A locomotive quietly steams away the night in the 1882 roundhouse in Durango, Colorado. Read More About this Image         Order this Image

MOON OVER the SOUTHERN A "Rio Grande Southern" locomotive steams through the night in old Chama, New Mexico under the eye of the full moon. (Moon is a double exposure). Read How this Image was Made                     Order this Image

CALL OUT the ROTARY! Pushed by three hard working locomotives, a steam rotary chews through the snow trying to open the line over Cumbres Pass in southern Colorado. Read About this Image         Order this Image

CLIMBING CUMBRES With only 13 1/2 miles separating Chama, New Mexico from the 10,015 crossing of the Conejos Mountains via Cumbres Pass in southern Colorado, the grade is a steady, unrelenting 4% or more. Requiring, in the days of the Rio Grande, the use of additional helper engines and, frequently, doubling of the hill (splitting a train into two shorter sections). Re-lettered for their historic owner, the Denver & Rio Grande RR, engines 463, a K-27 (for 27,000 pounds tractive force, and affectionately called “Mudhen” by trainmen) built by Baldwin in 1903; and 497, a K-37 (37,100 pounds tractive force) locomotive built in 1902, team up to lift their train through an “S” curve on their climb to Cumbres Pass. Order this Image

WET RAILS and STEAM A doubleheader works hard on the slippery wet rails climbing Cumbres Pass in Southern Colorado on a chill, damp September day. Order this Image

PUSHING HARD In addition to having to doublehead locomotives to gain sufficient power to lift a train over Cumbres Pass, the Denver & Rio Grande RR often added a pusher locomotive as well. Because the cabooses were built on a wooden frame, the pusher locomotive is cut in ahead of the caboose to avoid crushing it! Order this Image TRIPLE-HEADER! Three engines - one in front, a mid-train helper, and a helper in the back - have a long freight out of Chama, New Mexico eastbound toward Cumbres Pass. Order this Image TRIPLE-HEADER 2 Another triple-header, this time with a helper up front and one mid-train, climbs toward Cumbres Pass east of Chama, New Mexico. Order this Image DARK SKIES at LOBATO Smoke from a doubleheaded train blasting up the wet rails near the Lobato trestle on the climb to Cumbres Pass adds to the dark of this rainy northern New Mexico morning. Order this Image COXO DOUBLEHEADER Doubleheaded steam locomotives work hard to lift their train up the steep west approach to Cumbres Pass in southern Colorado. Order this Image CRESCO TANK A freight climbing Cumbres Pass stops for water at the 1880's tank at Cresco siding in southern Colorado. Order this Image RIO GRANDE FREIGHT in LOS PINOS VALLEY With a mid-train helper pushing hard, a Rio Grande freight climbs westward through the scenic Los Pinos Valley on the east approach to Cumbres Pass in southern Colorado. Order this Image OUT of the NARROWS Two Cumbres & Toltec Scenic (ex-Denver & Rio Grande) locomotives are working hard on a damp October day as they emerge from the "Narrows" on the climb to Cumbres Pass in southern Colorado. Order this Image SNOW at HERMOSA TANK A Durango & Silverton train blasts through the little hamlet of Hermosa, 11 miles north of Durango, Colorado, on a snowy winter day in 1981. Order this Image LOG TRAIN Cass Scenic RR Shay #2 helps a train through the rainy mist and clouds that have settled around this West Virginia mountain. Order this Image SHAY #8 Georgetown Loop Shay #8 (a geared locomotive built for mountain grades too steep for a traditional rod locomotive) climbs through the steep valley between Georgetown and Silver Plume, Colorado. Order this Image LOOPING OVER In the late 1800s and early 1900s, the famous "Devil's Gate Viaduct" that looped over its own, lower level of track to climb the steep valley between Georgetown and Silver Plume, Colorado was a mecca for tourists. And so it remains today on the recreated trestle of the Georgetown Loop RR. (High contrast effect to simulate pen and ink drawing.) Order this Image MORNING STEAM In these two photos, Union Pacific #3985 waits by the Cheyenne, Wyoming roundhouse for her day's run. 3985 is the largest operating steam locomotive in the world. Order this Image MORNING STEAM 2 Order this Image SMOKE ACROSS the PRAIRIE Union Pacific #8444, the last steam locomotive made for the Union Pacific RR (in December 1944), is also the only steam locomotive in the U.S. that was never "retired", but kept in full operating condition to pull special promotional and excursion trains. Order this Image HIGH WIND at HERMOSA Smoke whipped by high Wyoming wind obscures engine 3985 behind 8444 as they doublehead at Hermosa, Wyoming on the Union Pacific's transcontinental main line south of Laramie. Order this Image GALLOPIN' GEESE Seven of these unique "Galloping Geese" railcars were built in the early 1930s by a near bankrupt railroad in southwestern Colorado. Their name comes from their swaying and rattling down the rickety track, loose pieces of silver colored body tin flapping, and "honking" air horns. Other railroads had their own somewhat similar looking rail cars, but none attained the legendary status of the Galloping Geese. Read more about the Galloping Geese. GALLOPING GOOSE at SILVERTON Galloping Goose #5 waits beside the old Denver & Rio Grande RR depot in Silverton, Colorado. Order this Image STEAM, SNOW and a GOOSE Denver & Rio Grande RR #346 and Rio Grande Southern "Galloping Goose" #7 wait out a spring snow squall at the Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden, Colorado. Order this Image The other portfolios: Rustic America     Americana    Vintage Tin and Old Iron     God's Creatures Great and Small America the Beautiful     Rodeo and the West     Railroading     Pot-Pourri     Jest for Fun Back to Top      Home Page