The Toltec Rattler Redux: “Over 50 Years Ago*” on America’s Longest and Highest Scenic Railroad

Описание: We hit the way back machine to 2022 which itself takes us back to 1972 to take a ride on the Toltec Rattler (Redux)... Time is a big ball of wibbly wobbly timey wimiy stuff...

Anyways, We're on the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad (wait, you mean Big Diehl did a video that’s no America’s Most Scenic Train Ride as voted on by USAToday’s readers, The Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad?!? That’s correct! Though the C&TS AND D&SNG switch places often in the ranking!) , America's Longest and Highest steam tourist railroad. The C&TS straddles the line in discord and rhyme because it's hungry like the wolf.... No, no wait, that's a Duran Duran song.

I'm sorry... The C&TS sits on the Colorado and New Mexico border and is jointly owned by the two states as a joint operation between the two. The Cumbres rolls between the Yard Limit at Chama, New Mexico, and the Yard Limits of Antonito, Colorado.

The railroad took over the abandoned section of the San Juan Extention of the former Denver and Rio Grande Western in 1970, and in 1972 ran its first photographer's freight train, the Toltec Rattler. The Rattler (not named for the Diamondback Rattlesnake, but the rattling sound of the empty cars as the train went down the tracks) roared up the west side of Cumbres Pass with K-36s 483 and 484 that took a motley assemblage of freight cars to Big Horn and return.

Today we look back at the Toltec Rattler Redux, the Cumbres and Toltec's homage to this original train. The train is shortened to allow the 484 to handle it alone as the 483 has long been sidelined for other locomotives such as the now oil-burning 489. We see behind the locomotive a reefer madness, sorry, just a refrigerator car just like the original had. Drop Bottom and High Side Gondolas and boxcars and caboose make the rest of our train.

So while there's no distant signal because the narrow gauge here was never signaled, you can't be delayed in block (delay in block ?), and there never were any commuter trains here, so you can't be a Coaster Fan on these rails.

0:00 Introduction
1:49 Jukes' Tree / First Highway 17 Crossing
2:48 Broad Spur
3:22 The Narrows
4:54 Lake Lobato
6:13 Lobato
9:09 Second Highway 17 Crossing
9:49 Cresco State Line
12:03 Hamilton's Point
12:58 Third Highway 17 Crossing
12:51 Windy Point
15:03 Cumbres Pass Eastbound
15:55 Tanglefoot Curve
17:43 Apache Crossing
19:07 Los Pinos Bench
19:51 Los Pinos Tank
20:40 Los Pinos Trestle
21:49 Long Creek
22:44 Cascade Creek
24:29 Mud Tunnel
25:16 Toltec Siding
26:49 West of Sublette
27:39 Big Horn Yard Limit (Obligatory shoutout to ‪@YardLimit‬ )
29:48 Big Horn Wye (because we can)
31:17 Rio Grande Del Norte View
32:45 Approaching Sublette
34:01 Sublette
34:41 Rock Tunnel
36:03 Onboard Westbound
36:40 Los Pinos Redux
38:00 Los Pinos Tank Redux
39:13 Apache Crossing Redux
40:44 Approaching Cumbres
41:24 Finale at Cumbres