Twelve
folks joined us for a three day
trip to Albuquerque and Santa Fe, but with a difference. For the
first time in these trips, we were all couples! Yes, joining us
this year were Donn and Kyra Pease, Jim and Jody Wurgler, Mike and
Joyce Nelson, Steve and Bonnie Rudy, Mike and Bev Scigliano and the
surprise of all, Mary Jane Atonna. We have also become eclectic
as the Atonnas, Peases and Wurglers are members of the NRHS Grand
Canyon Chapter, while the Atonnas, Peases, Nelsons, Rudys and
Sciglianos are members of the Central Arizona Model Railroaders.
An Amtraking trip means that you travel
when Amtrak does and in our area that means leaving or arriving at
3:30am in Williams. This year it was leaving, so our crew
assembled at 3am at the lobby of the Grand Canyon Railway hotel in
Williams to be ushered by the hotel’s van to the Williams Junction
Union Station. We were seasoned travelers, so managed to resist
waiting trackside for the cold 3am wind of passing freights and enjoyed
the warmth of our van until an almost on time arrival of the eastbound
Southwest Chief.
For this short trip, it was all coach
travel. But Amtrak travel still means breakfast in the diner as
the sun rose to the east. We all indulged. And before we
knew it, we were pulling into Albuquerque.
The purpose of this trip was two
fold. First it was to ride the Rail Runner commuter train in its
length from Belin on the south to Santa Fe on the north. We had
Amtraked to Albuquerque three years ago, but the segment north to Santa
Fe was not yet open. But Donn had noticed that the newly elected
New Mexico governor wanted to cut state funding for the train,
threatening weekend service. So we decided this was a good time
for a return visit, while we could.
After lunch it was on the Rail Runner to
the south end of the line at Belin and a visit to the Fred Harvey
museum in the historic Belin Harvey House. In addition, Mike
Shea, one of our hosts from three years ago, came to see us and make
sure the HO layouts in the museum were running for us. They have
a permanent layout which is under some reconstruction, but a nice
modular layout was operating in a wing of the museum. Come dinner
time, Greg Palmer, our other previous host, came down to join us at a
Mexican restaurant across the street from the museum.
Greg also won the humanitarian of the
week award. As we would not make it to our motel till evening, this
meant that we were all carrying our weekend’s bags with us. The
Railrunner station is across the BNSF main line from the museum.
Fortunately the town has built a new pedestrian walkway over the
tracks, but which requires a climb up a good 25 - 35 feet (this is a
new bridge and has a neat observation overlook - but for some strange
reason was placed on the side opposite the major Belin yards?).
So after carrying bags through downtown Albuquerque for lunch, then
over the tracks to the museum and finally to the restaurant, some of
the folks were not looking forward to the reverse trip over the bridge
back to the Railrunner station. To the rescue comes Greg, who
shuttled everyone’s bags and Kyra who is just now getting her mobility
back after major foot surgery.
Onboard, we headed north on the BNSF
tracks toward Albuquerque. The Railrunner constructed a new entry
into Santa Fe, taking off from BNSF about 15 miles south of town, then
joining the old Santa Fe branch a few miles out for the rest of the run
into town. The new construction is first rate, concrete ties and
a curving 3% grade up to the 7000 foot elevation of Santa Fe.
Operation is push-pull and northbound
allowed us to sit facing the window opposite the engineer, and most
everybody turns in the “almost” engineer’s seat. When my turn
came, I noticed the speedometer also had a digital readout - we were
doing a steady 80mph!
It was dark when we got to our motel, a
couple of blocks from the station and I suspect there was no midnight
oil burning with any of this crew.
Saturday was originally to be a trip on
the Santa Fe Southern tourist line to Lamy, lunch there and a return to
Santa Fe. But a month earlier, I found out they were shut down
for track repair, to be reopened in April. Did not happen, we
learned later they also have a locomotive under repair and opening is
now to be in May. So, we decided Saturday was to be a free day
for visiting the historic places in town, galleries and shopping.
The hotel has a great shuttle service, so Mary Jane and I were dropped
off at the top of Canyon Rd, and spend the day enjoying the galleries
as we walked back toward our motel.
Our
Railrunner left for Albuquerque
Sunday at 11am and our car attendant warned us that there is a good
crowd on Sundays, so be sure to be there on time. The motel was
across the street from a park built on the old rail yards and features
a pedestrian walkway along the tracks to the station. So, we all
wandered the area on a pleasant morning till train time.
As the train car door opened where Mary
Jane and I were standing, the conductor was in the doorway and said,
“Peter, I figured it was you!” It turns out the car attendant on
Friday had told Sunday’s conductor about this group of train nuts from
Arizona who would be taking the train back to Albuquerque on
Sunday. And who was the conductor, Bill Deihl, a Grand Canyon
Railway alum! Bill had got on with the Railrunner and was in line
for the next engineer’s opening (he also joined us last year at
National Train Day in Williams, although he can’t come this year as he
noted he is working six day weeks for the Railrunner.)
Calling
Amtrak, I anxiously waited to see
if the train would be on time - this is towards the end of the run from
Chicago and who knows what could have delayed it. Surprise, it
was not only on time, but to be 30 minutes early. Well that was
too good to be true, and it was not. But it did arrive on the
scheduled time. Dinner on the diner and most of us were dozing by
sunset.
I am always worried about losing time
between Albuquerque and Flagstaff. Many of our previous on time
departures from Albuquerque still found us an hour or more late into
Williams. I think the problem is weaving the eastbound traffic
block through our westbound block which always seems to meet in New
Mexico. And again traffic was really heavy and at times we were
slowed - but never stopped. The BNSF dispatcher did a great job
that day getting us through and we were maybe only 15 minutes
late. It took two shuttles from the hotel to get us and the other
detraining passengers back to our cars. We said our farewells and
among the good by’s, I got two “what is next year’s trip to be?”