A couple weeks before I got married, I drove to Chama, NM, with my father and my brother, to ride the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad. I had ridden the train before when I was about 10 years old, but that memory was too long ago for me to really remember how beautiful the scenery was. So, I convinced my brother and father we had to go ride the train again.
We drove up to Chama, on the friday before Memorial Day Weekend. The sun had just set, as we pulled into the hotel parking lot, and I was ecstatic to see the dark silhouettes of the steam engines smoking against the horizon, across the street from our hotel. After we checked into the hotel, I went for a walk along the road to see what I could see in the rail yard, but unfortunately it was getting pretty dark. I would have to wait the night before I would get to see everything.
The hotel we stayed in that night felt like a hotel that one might of stayed in a hundred years ago, if you had ridden the train into town. The room was just large enough to hold a single bed and a double bed. Everything about the hotel just seem to give me a nostalgic feeling about the place. I was so excited and I just couldn't wait until tomorrow morning. My brother and I were forced to sleep in a double bed that, needless to say, was not wide enough for each of us to lay on our backs. So we tossed and turned most of the night trying to sleep.
When the first light of morning came. I darted out the door with my camera. I was absolutely determined to get some good pictures of the iron work horses (steam engines) at work. I ran across the street and down the small hill to the station and I enjoyed watching the steam engine assemble the train for our expedition. I sat there for a good part of a half hour just watching it pull cars out of the rail yard and add them to the train sitting in front of the station. I would have sat there all day if my father and brother didn't come get me for breakfast.
We walked a few store fronts down from the hotel, we were staying in, and walked into a local dinner and sat down. The place had funny slogans posted all over the walls and was decorated in a pseudo western style. You could really smellthe eggs and green chile from the breakfast burritos cooking in the back. (Which made me very hungry!) While we were waiting for our food to come out, a young man in his twenties walked into the dinner and asked if he could sit next to us at the table. When he sat down, I saw he sat a very similar camera, to the camera I was using, on the table. (Which is probably why he chose to sit next to me.) He asked me if I was riding the train today, and I excitedly told him I was. Then he proceeded to tell me how he had driven all the way from Socorro to take pictures of thetrain. I thought for sure, this meant he was going to ride the train too.
When we finished breakfast, everyone in the dinner got up and went across the street for the opening ceremony. Memorial Day Weekend was the first run of the season for the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad. So the whole town came and gathered round for a speech from the railroad president, and a twenty one gun solute to remember our armed forces. When the speech had finished they pulled the newly restored engine number 488 out of the engine shed and backed it up side by side with engine 487 (the engine that was pulling our train). When I saw engine number 488 pulling out of the engine house. I quickly ran up the tracks to get a picture of it as it backed into place. The young man who had eaten breakfast with us, had also followed me and was kneeling right beside me, also taking pictures. When the two engines were both visible in the frame, and I had my perfect shot lined up, I distinctly remember hearing the young man say "This is better than sex!" I snickered whenI heard this, and I felt like I had just taken one of my favorite pictures of all time.
Right after I took this shot, it was time to board the train. I was really excited to ride the train and I was determined to get some good pictures along the way. I boarded the train and to my surprise, the young man parted ways with us and jumped in his car. I thought what a waste to drive up here just to take a few pictures and then drive home. (Little did I realize he was going to follow the train.)
It was about fifteen minutes after the train had left the station when we came to the first trestle bridge. I saw it coming and I quickly got in position to take a picture as the locomotive approached the bridge. As the train approached the bridge I saw something that drew my attention. There laying in the grass next to the bridge was the young man laying in the grass. (He's laying in the grass to left in this picture.)
He was in a perfect position to get a picture of the train as it passed. (I can only image the pictures he got that day.) I waved to him as we crossed the bridge and he waved back. It was clear to me now what the young man was doing. He followed the train the whole day, and most of the time the train was going slow enough I could eve say hi to him in passing. I really enjoyed watching him work that day and I still dream of going back some day to chase the train in the same manner that young man did.
I had a lot of fun that day riding the train and taking pictures. I got several good pictures that day, but one of my favorites from the day was when my dad joined me outside for a couple minutes, in between the cars. The train had just rounded a corner and I got a nice picture of my dad, with the train in the back ground. This was definitely an awesome vacation.
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