La Veta Pass

Woke up bright and early to a cold foggy morning on the 24th, packed up and headed off for our free hot breakfast. Apart from the crunchy bacon, it was ok. Then we headed on down to the San Luis and Rio Grande Railway depot and collected our tickets. Asked if we could upgrade to dome class which was no problem, except my card wouldn't read so we got it for free; the tickets lady said it was our reward for coming all the way from New Zealand :-)

Boarded the train, climbed up into the dome car and with a long whistle we were off. Our steam engine chuffed out into the fog and soon we were trundling along at our top speed for the day: 30 mph. There were quite a few photographers out waiting for us; the photos would've been amazing with all the steam and fog. It really was like something out of a dream with all the swirling clouds of white!

After about 45 mins we started climbing the hills at the start of the La Veta Pass. Our conductor was in the carriage with us giving a running commentary and was really good, seems he definitely enjoys his job.

So we crested the top of La Veta Pass at 9,242 ft elevation and headed down the other side. Stopped in La Veta for lunch. Wandered around town (all 3 blocks) and found a bakery. I ordered a slice of peach pie, and Angela ordered a sandwich ($6.50!!!) and a couple of drinks. The sandwich took quite a while to make, and somehow it had melted cheese but the break wasn't toasted. Had they microwaved it!? Then they forgot to give us our drinks, which was quite impressive since all they had to do was go to the fridge! So all in all it took about quarter of an hour for a $6.50 sandwich (which was soggy), a slice of peach pie which also was nothing special and had way too much crust, and two cans of drink.

 
Our steam engine; a Rio Grande 2-8-0 with a damn good chuff / SLRG #18 getting some TLC at lunch time.

The train however was much better than lunch! They also have an old box car that they've turned into restrooms; pretty clever. Boarded the train again and set off. After a while I decided to visit the open carriage and soon discovered where all the males had gone! There were at least half a dozen of us out there grinning madly as the steam engine slowly hauled us up the grades.

The route is pretty amazing; most of it is through forest land with loads of conifers and aspens. We saw deer a few times crossing the track and hiding in the bushes. Towards the top it was snowing quite heavily, but not actually settling. I was nicely wrapped up (finally, confirmation that bringing warm clothes was a good idea!) in my down jacket and rain coat, so was quite content sitting with my feet up on the open carriage in the sunshine (yup) watching the snow flurries and listening to the loco! All too soon we reached Fir, the summit of the line and had a few minutes for a quick leg stretch. It was all very informal, which was great. I love the name of the station, Fir, it suits the line so well.

Our loco resting at Fir, with open carriage, dome carriage and coach.

Fresh snow on the surrounding Sangre de Cristo mountains / Thick snow flurries on the way to Fir.

Loco and open carriage. Carriage is a heavyweight steel coach with triple axel bogies.

Angela posing next to US flag and 44 gallon drum at Fir / Our loco again (snow gone and now it's sunny)

So had a good break in the snow flurries at Fir. Then we were back on our way through Horseshoe Curve which is a curve that almost doubles back on itself to gain elevation at reduced grade. Apparently a massive herd of Elk were seen here a few nights earlier.

Horseshoe curve in the sun/snow

Deer crossing the track / Approaching the bottom end of Horseshoe curve, note the uphill end of the track at right.

We continued on down the hill and reckon we saw some elk in the bushes; they were bulkier and different coloured to normal deer.

Fir and aspens / Amazing rock cuttings like this were all along the line

The trip through the pass is amazing; very scenic, even on a gray day. This is the main route of the San Luis and Rio Grande railroad and they run freight trains over the pass most evenings. I can only imagine how hard the locos have to work to lug trains over this pass – with its sharp curves, 30mph speed limit and steep grades it's hardly a walk in the park! Our steam engine was finding it tough with just 3 passenger carriages!

After a while we exited the pass and were back running across the plains into Alamosa again. This is the only boring part of the journey; desert just wasn't made to be viewed at only 30mph. Saw numerous trailer homes out in the middle of the desert, and a few farms. At Blanca there is a massive potato processing plant, apparently half of the potatoes in America are grown in the San Luis Valley (the valley is the size of Israel and some of the smaller US states the conductor said).

Arrived back in Alamosa about dinner time, having thoroughly enjoyed myself. The service was professional, but nicely informal at the same time. I think it's great that the SL&RG RR does this, as they started as a freight railroad but have gone to the trouble of purchasing a steam loco and passenger stock in order to run this and their other two passenger trains.

Back at the depot basking in the evening sun.

Old railway station; a beautiful brick building that has lasted over a hundred years / Classic motoring in Alamosa.

One of their diesel locos / genuine American back alley

Went for a bit of a walk around town once we got back and saw some of their diesels. They have a bunch of GE Dash 8 locos in a lovely maroon / gold version of the old Rio Grande black / gold paint scheme. The dash 8 locos are the same as the models I have recently bought so it was good to see these in person.

For dinner we went to The Brewery which is a local pub/restaurant, which was packed. We chose our meals but only then did the waitress explain that their deep fryer was out of order, they'd run out of ribs, and they were out of chicken! So we had to order a whole new set of meals. I ordered the rib eye steak which was nice, albeit more rare than medium. Angela ordered a burger which came with crunchy bacon again (what is it with Alamosa and murdering bacon?!). But that was all ok… what really soured it was when we came to pay. Usual American process is: 1) get bill, 2) place credit card in bill holder, 3) waitress collects bill, brings back receipt, 4) you enter tip amount in the tip row and enter the new total, remove credit card and sign receipt, 5) waitress collects bill again, 6) you leave.

What happened was this: 1) we got our bill, I placed card in bill. 2) waitress collected bill. 3) waitress walked past numerous times, never had our bill. 4) after 10 minutes I caught her and asked where it was. By now we were pretty exhausted after a long day and just wanted to go home and sleep, so were running out of patience. 5) five minutes later she still hadn't come back! 6) finally she came back with the bill for me to sign and apologised for the delay, saying that she'd lost my credit card! Yikes! So 15 minutes just to swipe my card. So I gave them a single dollar tip (did she even deserve that?) and we left proto. Won't be going there again!

Went back to the hotel and played around with Angela's Zune some more. Hit a brick wall trying to legally purchase music using our travel cards as you "need" a US address. Why??? I don't know. It's just a song for goodness sake! Gave up on that approach and went to the Alamosa Wal-mart and bought iTunes & Zune marketplace gift certificates there. So paying directly with a CC = impossible, but it's quite easy to use the exact same card to buy a store credit and buy songs that way. It's all very complicated! Welcome to the future!

But finally we got everything working and now Angela's Zune has hundreds of songs on it. It's a very cool device!

Unfortunately our train to Antonito the next day had been cancelled, but not to worry, just have to drive down there instead. On the plus side it'd give me more time to look around the depot there at the end of our train ride. So hit the hay ready for another early start.