C&TS Freights, September 2011

On September 21 and 22 Pete Lerro chartered photo freights on the C&TS. The first day was a Cumbres "turn" in the afternoon, with a night photo shoot at Cumbres. The second day was a "stock train" to Osier. Since I have been photographing Cumbres pass since DRGW days, Pete asked me for some advice about "authenticity". Most photo freights tend to start out of either Chama or Antonito in the morning, so the lighting dictates a lot of "same old same old" shots. In contrast the DRGW tended to run at all hours of the day and night. In addition, one of the things I had never seen back in the DRGW days was a stock movement. So what evolved was the afternoon run up the hill from Chama with a night shoot at Cumbres, and a "stock train" to Osier complete with a few cattle in the pens at Osier. While not everything worked as I had quite hoped, overall we got some good photo ops and some were even a bit different from the standard fare. Overall, a great trip and I hope that Pete will have some additional opportunities to apply his creative flair to the narrow gauge.