About midway across the northern border of New Mexico lies the town of Chama, a departure point for the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad. The steam-powered train winds its way through the San Juan Mountains, just as it had over a 100 years ago. Although it no longer carries ore, timber or coal, today's passenger railway still travels the 64 mile route, crossing the Colorado-New Mexico border numerous times. It labors over the 10,015 foot Cumbres Pass (highest point reached by any passenger train in America), through the 600 foot deep Toltec Gorge and offers up splendid mountain scenery, thrilling thousands of passengers with one of the best scenic train-trips in the country.
In this Picture of the Day, the Cumbres and Toltec train, traveling east of Lobato Trestle, gets plenty of much needed pulling power with tandem steam locomotives. The Rocky Mountains provide plenty of scenic highlights, but present quite a few challenging grades for this narrow gauge train between Antonito, Colorado and Chama, New Mexico.