Chama Yard, New Mexico — North Camera

This is the working end of the Chama yard. The Friends of the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad list what the North Camera covers, left to right: "Bunk House - Coaling Area - Gramps Oil Rack - Mainline to Denver - Water Tank - Engine House Lead". Coal, water and oil in one frame, which is precisely the sequence a narrow-gauge Mikado goes through before it can leave for Antonito.

The "Mainline to Denver" in that caption is the original Denver & Rio Grande route direction, not a destination the railroad serves today. The line here was "originally constructed in 1880 as part of the Rio Grande's narrow gauge San Juan Extension" at "a gauge of 3 feet between the rails", and what remains in service is the "64-miles between Chama, NM, and Antonito, CO" over the "10,015 foot high Cumbres Pass" — so the eastward main line in view is the start of the climb.

The yard itself has been publicly owned since 1970, when Colorado and New Mexico paid "$547,120" for "Nine steam locomotives, over 130 freight and work cars, and the Chama yard and maintenance facility". The railroad received "National Historic Landmark Designation in 2012", and this camera is aimed at the reason why: the coaling, watering and servicing infrastructure survived intact rather than being swept away.

The camera is one of three the Friends installed and pay for — "made possible by the support of FRIENDS of the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad" — carried in a Brownrice Internet HTML5 video player on the Friends' webcam page. No terms of use are published, so Spotatrain links rather than embeds.