In Santa Fe I stayed a 10 minute walk from the vibrant Railyard District.
This area includes the Santa Fe Depot where the Railrunner to Albuquerque as well as the Sky Train which goes to Lamy departs.
A continuous-line sketch of the Sky Train (left) and the Railrunner (right) at the Santa Fe depot.
The Sky Train is funded by local author George R. R. Martin (Game of Thrones). The train is a sunset, murder mystery train that is more about the journey than going anywhere.
In the Railyard are restaurants, breweries, art shops, a farmer’s market, a bookshop, and two cinemas.
The symbolic water tower, reflecting back to the days of steam at the Railyard.
I had breakfast at Sky Coffee and sketched the view before me of the watertower which is the symbol of the Railyard. This water tower is a replica of a real water tower used in the days of steam. I don’t think is served a purpose other than being a rounded billboard for the “Santa Fe Railyard”.
Here’s a real watertower on the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad in the Chama Railyard (more about the C&TSRR in other posts).
As I sketched and sipped artisans were setting up an art bazaar behind the tower. This city is full of art and artists like no other.
My first HO locomotive, given to me by my father at Christmas was a EMD F7 painted in Santa Fe’s iconic red, yellow, and silver “Warbonnet” paint scheme. This paint scheme, with its Native American atheistic, has “Southwest” written all over it.
The Super Chief was a passenger route that travelled 2,227 miles in 39 hours and 30 minutes between Chicago, Illinois and Los Angeles, California. Its first run was on May 18, 1937 and it’s last was May 19, 1974.
This was the first all diesel powered streamlined passenger service with an EMC E1 on point. The route was such a success that F7s were ordered (EMD’s most successful passenger locomotive).
This is such an iconic diesel and paint scheme that it was replicated in many scale models (like my HO locomotive) and in my favorite childhood railroad book The Illustrated Encyclopedia of North American Locomotives by Brian Hollingsworth. The first picture on the first page is a wonderful photograph of the Super Chief headed by the Warbonnet F7 A Unit and it’s silver consist curving behind:
The Super Chief was the paragon of overnight train travel in the United States. The pinnacle of the romance on the rails, the Super Chief consist featured a passenger lounge, roomette, double bedrooms, a dining car, drawing rooms, a barbershop, a cocktail lounge, and a rounded observation car.
My HO F7 at full scale at the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento. This one really took me back.
For my early October fall break I decided to spend the week in New Mexico.
The last time I set foot in the state, or lay down in it, was a visit to Four Corners on a road trip with my family. So my last and only visit was fleeting.
As is my usual routine I sketch a map of the state with my intended travel destinations with round vignettes of sight I hoped to see and sketch (featured sketch).
These include the Taos Pueblo, the Cumbres &Toltec Scenic Railroad, the Railyard District in Santa Fe, Canyon Road arts district also in Santa Fe, San Francisco de Asis Church in Taos, my digs in Santa Fe, Tent Rocks National Monument, Scandinavia Peak Tramway, and the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta.
Side view of the famous Santa Fe F7 Super Chief in its Warbonnet (red, yellow, and silver) livery.
I got to the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento a little early so I walked over to sketch the replica of the Central Pacific passenger depot. (The former stations had burned down.)
This station is at ground zero from where Central Pacific started the Transcontinental Railroad. Mile Marker 0 was a hundred feet behind me as I sketched.
I walked around the depot and looked at two amazing Santa Fe steam locomotives that where sitting on sidings in static display. Both of them had come from New Mexico and both where not in great shape, needing some cosmetic restoration.
Santa Fe No. 2925 is a 4-8-4 passenger locomotive. This is one of the heaviest 4-8-4 Northerns ever built. Today only five of the 30 produced survive. SP No. 2467 is a 4-6-2 Pacific type build in 1921. She pulled passenger trains and was retired in 1956. The locomotive was restored to working order in the 1990s and is still operational.
Once in the museum, one locomotive on my sketch list was an EMD diesel-electric F7 painted in the iconic Santa Fe Warbonnet livery.
When I was a child my dad used to take me to the tracks to see passing passenger trains. And one Christmas he got me my first HO train and it was a smaller version of the classic Santa Fe passenger locomotive.
This paint scheme is so famous that if you Google EMD F7, a picture of the Warbonnet F7 comes up.
The iconic Santa Fe units where on point of the 2,227 mile route from Chicago to Los Angeles called the Super Chief. This was one of the first all streamlined diesel cross country route.
I wanted to add another night to stay at the Railroad Park Resort in Dunsmuir but the SP Caboose # 17 was booked, so I booked one of the popular Santa Fe cabooses.
I spent my last night at the Resort in Caboose # 28 a former Santa Fe cupola caboose.
This CE-2 caboose was built by the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railway in 1942. It was rebuilt in 1970 and renumbered as ATSF 999448. It came to the resort in the late 1980’s.
A caboose is a uniquely bit of United States railroading. At one time all freight trains had a caboose (usually red) at the end of each train. A caboose came at the time when train crews were larger than they are today, during the age of steam. Each locomotive had an engineer and fireman but the conductor was in charge of the train. The conductor’s office was on rails, this was the caboose.
From the caboose, the conductor could throw switches, aid in backing up, check the train for safety, and fill out paperwork. From the view in the cupola, or later the bay window, he could oversee the train to make sure no loads were shifting on freight cars. He could also monitor the train for overheated axels called “hot boxes”.
Most cabooses where fitted with a desk, bathroom, bed, and storage closets. It really was a home-office on wheels, reflecting the long work days and may miles on the railroad.
Laws where in place that all freight train had to contain a caboose for safety reasons. This changed as technology improved and railroad cuts made more with smaller crews. The new, modern diesel-electric engines had larger cabs which means that the conductor could ride up front.
The technology railroads use to replace cabooses are called an end-of-train device. These devices are fitted to the last car of a freight train and monitors air brake pressure and over heated axels. There is also a blinking safely light that warns other trains behind..
By the early 1980’s, laws were changing that no longer required trains to have cabooses. By the mid-1980’s most freight trains no longer ended with a caboose. The era of the red, cupolaed caboose was over.
Whenever I watch a long freight train pass by, I hopefully expect to find a caboose at the end of the train. This comes from seeing so many cabooses on freight trains when I was a young rail fan. In my mind, some how, the blinking, oblong box at the end of a train will never really replace a caboose
This 1972 built Southern Pacific bay window caboose, #1886, was one of the last cabooses in service on the railroad. It was last in service on November 15, 1995 on Southern Pacific’s Lompoc White Hills branch line. I was told the reason for this was that there was a part of the line where the train had to back over a road crossing and the caboose was required for safety reasons. It is now restored and on exhibit at the San Luis Obispo Railroad Museum.
