As seen from the rear platform of the private car CARITAS, here's a photo I took on October 27, 1993, THIRTY YEARS AGO, of an eastbound AAPRCO special operating over the now-out-of-service D&RGW Tennessee Pass line near milepost 208 near Swissvale, CO. This was during the SP-D&RGW alliance and before Union Pacific gobbled up those railroads.

The special originated in Sacramento, CA as that was the location of AAPRCO's annual convention in 1993. I knew it would be operating via Tennessee Pass and the Royal Gorge so I flew to Grand Junction, CO on Mesa Airlines flight 5022, a Beech 1900D, and intercepted the train there. I remember having a good view of Meteor Crater as we were flying over northern Arizona. UP halted operations on the Tennessee Pass line in 1997, twenty-six years ago, and it's anyone's guess as to whether the line will ever see a train again.

The special ran though the Royal Gorge not too long after this photo was taken and then assumed a largely overnight journey on the ATSF from Pueblo to Kansas City. At Kansas City, Clark Johnson, Nona Hill and their High Iron Travel Company made arrangements to assemble a train comprised of several cars and ran it on the Missouri and North Arkansas Railroad, which was known as the "White River Line" when Missouri Pacific operated it. Along with about thirty other passengers, I rode that train from Pleasant Hill, MO to Diaz Junction, AR. We parked for the night of October 30th in Hollister, MO and resumed southward the next day. We had to ride a chartered bus from Diaz Junction to Little Rock as arrangements were not negotiated with Union Pacific to run an occupied chartered passenger train between those two points.

The next day I flew on two Southwest Airlines flights from Little Rock to Los Angeles, changing planes in Houston and making intermediate stops in Dallas, San Antonio and El Paso.

Good memories, and it's good to have 35mm slides and detailed records to help preserve those memories.

Here's a break down of the new rail mileage and flight information from my computerized records:

Dotsero, CO - Pueblo Union Depot, CO DRGW SP AAPRCO 222.5 October 27, 1993
Pueblo Union Depot, CO - Avondale, CO ATSF ATSF AAPRCO 14.3 October 27, 1993
Avondale, CO - N.A. Junction, CO MP UP AAPRCO 11.8 October 27, 1993
N.A. Junction, CO - La Junta, CO ATSF ATSF AAPRCO 36.7 October 27, 1993
Pleasant Hill, MO - Hollister, MO MP MNA EXTRA 197.8 October 30, 1993
Hollister, MO - Diaz Junction, AR MP MNA EXTRA 186.0 October 31, 1993

* * * * *

October 26, 1993 WN 0410 LAX-PHX 1200-1310 N375SW
October 26, 1993 YV 5022 PHX-GJT 1530-1710 N48YV
November 01, 1993 WN 0023* LIT-DAL 1040-1145 N370SW
November 01, 1993 WN 0023 DAL-HOU 1200-1255 N370SW
November 01, 1993 WN 0744* HOU-SAT 1800-1850 N93SW
November 01, 1993 WN 0744 SAT-ELP 1910-1935 N93SW
November 01, 1993 WN 0744 ELP-LAX 2000-2105 N93SW