Entering the Narrows
About 2 miles out of Chama, the rotary outfit comes along Highway 17 as the train enters a tight little valley known as "The Narrows." As can clearly be seen, there is probably less than foot of snow on the rails.....but enough to put on a nice demonstration. Providing the motive power this day are two of the line's K-36 Locomotives, #s 487 and 484. Behind that are the rotary outfit Cook Car and a Bunk Car, with a Caboose on the tail end. Outside of the C&TS markings (vs. D&RGW), this was a pretty authentic-looking rotary outfit.
It should be noted that the 2020 Rotary Run was operated as a private charter, vs. a public event. There were two reasons for this. First, because the railroad's insurance company would not allow them to run it as an open, public event, due to safety concerns. As the CT&S CMO put it: " A rotary plow is the nuclear weapon of railfandom. If we were to run this without controls, we would have bedlam." The second reason for the security was because the event was being paid for by the 150 photographers who attended, not by the railroad. Therefore, State Police and Highway Department personnel set up a rolling work-zone. This essentially prevented any non-participating traffic from passing through the area of operations, without a police escort. Non-participants were not allowed to stop or park in the work zone. It created a safe zone for the photographers, and kept the crazies from doing their thing. In the end, it worked pretty well. It was just extremely expensive. For this reason, the railroad does not expect to run OY again on the west side.
Entering the Narrows
About 2 miles out of Chama, the rotary outfit comes along Highway 17 as the train enters a tight little valley known as "The Narrows." As can clearly be seen, there is probably less than foot of snow on the rails.....but enough to put on a nice demonstration. Providing the motive power this day are two of the line's K-36 Locomotives, #s 487 and 484. Behind that are the rotary outfit Cook Car and a Bunk Car, with a Caboose on the tail end. Outside of the C&TS markings (vs. D&RGW), this was a pretty authentic-looking rotary outfit.
It should be noted that the 2020 Rotary Run was operated as a private charter, vs. a public event. There were two reasons for this. First, because the railroad's insurance company would not allow them to run it as an open, public event, due to safety concerns. As the CT&S CMO put it: " A rotary plow is the nuclear weapon of railfandom. If we were to run this without controls, we would have bedlam." The second reason for the security was because the event was being paid for by the 150 photographers who attended, not by the railroad. Therefore, State Police and Highway Department personnel set up a rolling work-zone. This essentially prevented any non-participating traffic from passing through the area of operations, without a police escort. Non-participants were not allowed to stop or park in the work zone. It created a safe zone for the photographers, and kept the crazies from doing their thing. In the end, it worked pretty well. It was just extremely expensive. For this reason, the railroad does not expect to run OY again on the west side.