NUMBER TWELVE

 Late that weekend, after filming 4 engines, all moving at the same time in Chama, we were talking to the caboose crew of another freight train in Antonio Sunday evening. The crew had just walked to the grocery store to buy cheese, bread, and pop for their trip to Chama that evening. I remarked that I would love to ride over Cumbres pass on a freight train. They said, “Why don’t you come along?” (The chance of a lifetime) Like an idiot, I declined because I had to get back to Denver for my job Monday morning. I have regretted that decision ever since. I should have let the job go to grass!

 Another time, during my vacation I wanted to film a freight train going west from Alamosa. So I phoned the yardmaster in Alamosa, Monday morning at 8:00 AM. (That was the earliest their phones replied) The yardmaster said that a freight train was leaving Alamosa in 10 minutes. Wow! We all piled into the car for the 231 mile trip to Alamosa. We got to Antonito and could just see the train going west where the tracks leave the highway. We went over La Manga pass to wait for the train to appear. Meanwhile we were getting hungry, so we thought we would go back to Antonito to the grocery store to get something to eat. (There wasn’t any restaurant in town then) We put several pennies on the track to tell us if the train had passed by. When we got back the train had still not gotten there and now it was raining lightly. When the train arrived it was going very slow. I walked along side the front engine talking to the engineer. He said that the front engine had run out of sand, and they were having a tough time going. I told him we were going to Chama, and he said they would appreciate it if we would tell the Master Mechanic of their troubles. We did and when the train arrived later that evening the hotel had an obligation to open their new restaurant to the train crew. I told the Master Mechanic that we were hungry too. So he had us go to the hotel with him to eat as a favor for telling him of the train troubles. (The Master Mechanic is supposed to ride in the caboose, but he said he preferred to drive his own car to Chama.)
 

About the author

 
  I have always liked trains! I never worked for any railroad. I built my first HO freight car kit in 1937. Megow had a line of kits. Gondola, boxcar, tank car, refrigerator, caboose and I built them all. These kits sold for 50 cents each and included everything, a drawing, cement, paint, wood and paper parts, trucks, couplers and good instructions. I still have all of them. My first scratch built locomotive was finished in 1938, it was a consolidation S.P. 2-8-0 from a plan in the Model Craftsman magazine. Brass boiler, 22 shells for the stack and headlight and lead castings for the domes and cylinders (which I cast myself). I had to buy the wheels and motor,6 volt then and it still runs. My first job was a draftsman with the C. H. Dutton Boiler Co. in Kalamazoo, Mich. in 1940. World war II started and I had the chance to work in the machine shop, foundry, plate shop, and pattern shop. The best education I could have ever gotten. Later I worked 8 hours at Dutton's and 4 hours at American Tool & Die making tools for Dutton in their war effort. Although I got paid twice as much at A T & D, I couldn't quit Dutton's because I was being deferred at Dutton's. Finally I was drafted into the Navy. Served aboard a destroyer escort in the boiler room and the engine room. After the war I went to college and became a registered Mechanical Engineer in Colorado. I worked for a large machine shop, foundry & plate shop designing tools. After 6 years I became Chief Inspector with 28 inspectors in all departments. The plant closed and I went to work with the parent company Stearns Roger Engineering Co. I worked in the mining dept as a supervisor and checker until I retired in 1986. I started my first 1" scale live steam engine (Little Engines Atlantic 4-4-2 in 1955. It sat idle to be finished in 1968. My 2nd engine an Allen Mogul 2-6-0 was completed in1970. Since then I have built a 24 volt electric, a 36 volt Diesel, 6 riding gondolas, stock car, tank car, hopper car and caboose. All of the above are 1-1/2" scale. I am now building a 1" Pacific 4-6-2, a 1-1/2" Allen Chloe 0-4-2 and just inherited a monstrous Atlantic. The Pacific and the Chloe are about 60% completed. I mostly enjoy the machine work in my very complete basement machine shop. I have made 30,000 tie plates on my punch press for the Rocky Mountain Rails Railroad club. I have my boilers welded by the Uhrich Loco Co. in Strasburg, Colo. I make loco drawings for them and work in their machine shop to pay for the welding. You can see a couple of my loco drawings from 1988 on the web http://www.trainweb.org/parktrains/gallery/index.html Then to Uhrich Mechan 1 jpg and 2

Don Morgan

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