All traffic came together west of Dotsero for the Denver & Rio Grande Western, with westbound trains funneling in from both the Moffat Tunnel and Tennessee Pass routes. What a busy railroad this could be...and the noise! It's 1941. Huge and smoky 2-8-8-2 articulated 3604 heads eastbound below the towering cliffs of Glenwood Canyon with a "reefer" (refrigerator car) train for Denver. All twenty of these 3600's remained in service into the mid-1950s, becoming the last main line steam locomotives to run on the railroad. Air pumps, feedwater heater, and who knows what else on the front of the machine made extra work for Howard Fogg. He didn't mind.
No:2
\HDenver & Rio Grande Western\h
1966, oil
\IHermosa Graphics Collection\i
Here's a scene that's as old as Colorado railroading and as new as this morning. As Howard planned it, D&RGW 476 leads a northbound passenger train along the Animas River five miles south of Silverton. This narrow gauge line once handled ore from the mines, as well as livestock in season. Today it belongs to the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad. It carries more than a quarter of a million tourists a year who travel hundreds-sometimes thousands-of miles to southeastern Colorado in order to ride 45 miles through the San Juan Mountains. Marvelous.
No:3
\HColorado & Southern\h
1994, oil
\IAl and Bernadette Chione Collection\i
Kenosha Pass was the main barrier on the line from Denver to Como on the old Denver, South Park & Pacific. This 1879 line eventually became part of the Colorado & Southern slim gauge network until it was dismantled in 1938. With light smoke from its unique "bear trap" stack indicating a skilled fireman, 1896 Baldwin 2-8-0 No. 73 climbs the twisted 3.6 percent grade above Webster, assisted by a helper 2-8-0 that will cut off at the 9991-foot summit. Our little 73 will then take the train on to Como.
No:4
\HDenver & Rio Grande Western\h
1992, oil
\IAl and Bernadette Chione Collection\i
There's business to be done on this dismal 1941 day in the black canyon of the Gunnison River. D&RGW extra 268 West has stopped to pick up a cut of stock cars set out on the weedgrown siding. The crewmen are oblivious to the raw beauty of the Curecanti Needle, which looms up over the locomotive, and perhaps unaware that this landmark appeared on company literature and travel brochures at the turn of the century. Regrettably, by 1941 this once busy main line was but a branch.
No:5
\HDenver & Rio Grande Western\h
1988, oil
\IAl and Bernadette Chione Collection\i
It's easy to forget that the slim gauge rails of the D&RGW once reached Farmington, New Mexico-in those days a small town in the northwest corner of the state. But they did, and in this 1935 scene Consolidation 375 urges a stock car empty across the Animas River just south of Bondad, Colorado, on its way to Cedar Hill, New Mexico. Curiously, the branch was built to standard gauge in 1905 but was orphaned from the rest of the system; the idea was that eventually the whole southwestern Colorado network would be standard gauged. It wasn't, so in 1923 the rails were converted to narrow. They were finally ripped up in 1970.
No:6
\HDenver & Rio Grande Western\h
1989, oil
\IAl and Bernadette Chione Collection\i
What kept Colorado's narrow gauge railroads in business for all those years? Livestock! Howard Fogg brings home that point in this study of a D&RGW livestock extra tackling a steep westbound grade a few miles west of Cimarron in the fall of 1945. In a few hours the train will arrive at Montrose, where the cattle will be fed, watered, transferred to standard gauge cars, and then rushed to market in Denver. This expedited train requires three engines: class C-21 Consolidation 361, doubleheaded with mudhen 456 and another C-21, 360, shoving on the rear. Livestock was a hot commodity for D&RGW for nearly seventy-five years.
No:7
\HDenver & Rio Grande Western\h
1994, watercolor
\ICharles Ditlefsen Collection\i
This is the image that launched a million calendars. The narrow gauge train, comprised of Silverton coaches, labors around Tanglefoot Curve in Cumbres Pass on a 1958 Rocky Mountain Railroad Club excursion. Chuck Ditlefsen saw this image captured on film by cameraman Dick Kindig, and asked Howard to paint it. Meanwhile Kindig's photo wound up on the cover of Ditlefsen's very first Those Magnificent Trains calendar. From that sprang a whole series of Howard Fogg calendars, and finally, this tribute.
No:8
\HSouthern Pacific\h
1993, oil
\IAl and Bernadette Chione Collection\i
Colorado didn't have a monopoly on narrow gauge, even in so-called modern times. Witness this lonely desert scene, which perfectly frames Southern Pacific Ten-wheeler No. 9 and train approaching Keeler in California's Owens Valley in the year 1959. Abandonment of the entire narrow gauge line from Laws to Keeler is only a year away. Nevertheless, we're lucky. No. 9 has for some time been relegated as backup power for diesel No. 1, but No. 1 is sidelined for servicing. Historically, this section of railroad, which railfans affectionately call "The Slim Princess," was part of the Carson & Colorado, with connections north into Nevada.
No:9
\HHoward Fogg\h
1985
\ICourtesy of the Fogg Family\i
Here's another imaginary railroad from the red box which Howard handed to Al Chione at their last meeting in 1996. It had never been published before, but here it is: the 4-4-0 No. 85 of the WARR. Whose railroad? We don't know. Once again, Howard included animals: no less than three horses, even though he didn't really like to paint animals. It seems that the invention of the iron horse did not immediately put live horses and their covered wagons out to pasture!
No:10
\HGreat Northern\h
1974, oil
\IHermosa Graphics Collection\i
Remember when railroads hauled freight trains with diesels that looked like they should be pulling passenger trains? Well, here is an excellent example: Great Northern 430-D heading up a perfect A-B-B-A combination, rolling a westbound freight through spectacular Glacier National Park, near Nimrod, Montana. Triple Divide Peak glowers in the background in this midsummer panorama straight out of the 1950s. Subtract freight cars, add streamliner cars, and you have a perfect vacation poster!
No:11
\HSanta Fe Railway\h
1972, watercolor
\IJohn C. Lucas Collection\i
Glorieta Pass in Northern New Mexico presents the ruling grade on the northern transcontinental line between Raton and Albuquerque. It is known for its rock formations; it used to be known also for seven daily passenger trains that traveled through each way, each day. These tracks carried very little else that generated revenue. Here we see the Grand Canyon westbound at Glorieta, circa 1947, in the custody of Northern 2925, one of the last steam locomotives built for John Santa Fe. Its last assignment was to freight helper service in Abo Canyon, east of Belen, in the mid-1950s. 2925 was finally saved for the California Railroad Museum. Alas, she was in service only thirteen years.
No:12
\HSouthern Pacific\h
1989, watercolor
\ICourtesy of the Fogg Family\i
The Southern Pacific steam locomotive era endured longest on the San Francisco Peninsula commuter district, as class after class of steamers (including Daylight engines) gravitated to the San Francisco-San Jose run for their final assignments. Here we have SP 2472, a class P-8 Pacific, on the business end of train 112 heading for San Jose in 1952. The 2472 is one of two P-8's that were saved, and is now on display at San Mateo.
No:13
\HThe Milwaukee Road\h
1970, watercolor
\IRonald C. Hill Collection\i
The Puget Sound extension of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul was a bold gamble to cash in on an expected boom in Northwest shipping after the turn of the last century. It never panned out, but it certainly was a class act while it lasted. Most notable of the electric locomotives purchased for the two disconnected electric districts were the General Electric Bi-Polars. This is one of them, the E4, lugging the Olympian Hiawatha through Washington State's rugged Cascade Mountains circa 1955. Sad to say, there's nothing left of this trackage today.
No:14
\HSouthern Pacific Santa Fe\h
1986
\ICourtesy of the Fogg Family\i
The San Francisco Peaks are as real as can be in this Howard Fogg painting. But the railroad isn't real at all.
In the 1980s the Santa Fe and Southern Pacific announced merger plans. While the ICC deliberated, both railroads started repainting locomotives into the adopted merger scheme of red and yellow. This view shows SD45 No. 7102 and one other in the new livery on a westbound intermodal hotshot near West Williams Junction, Arizona. Well, the merger was denied, and those locomotives which had gotten the new paint job were in due course repainted as before. The 7102 didn't exist at all under that number, and only one locomotive temporarily got the complete SPSF initials. The artist's imagination trumps all photographic record!
No:15
\HCanadian National\h
oil
\IAl and Bernadette Chione Collection\i
Here we see a handsome, well-proportioned Northern rolling a westbound passenger train near Jasper Park at a good clip in the winter of 1952. The U2-G 6218 and train will be in Vancouver early tomorrow, and in a few seconds the passengers on this side of the train are in for a fleeting view of nature on the hoof. Observing the scene is a solitary moose, but he doesn't seem to be particularly impressed.
No:16
\HUnion Pacific\h
watercolor
\ICourtesy of the Fogg Family\i
Since the Union Pacific has the biggest preserved steam operation going, it is altogether fitting that we include Howard Fogg's portrait of 844, which he has chosen to show back when it was in regular service. This is passenger train 25 near La Grande, Oregon, and the year is something like 1949. After the UP decided to preserve it, the number was changed to 8444 to avoid conflict with a diesel. Later, the 4-8-4 retook its original number. It has the distinction of being the only steam locomotive on a major railroad which has remained in service continuously since the day it was delivered.
No:17
\HPenn Central\h
1972, watercolor
\IAl and Bernadette Chione Collection\i
The Penn Central, a merger of the old New York Central and the Pennsylvania, was an expensive disaster which went bankrupt. It took over NYC's Boston & Albany, always a heavy freight line, and here we see an early morning westbound freight at Jamesville, Massachusetts, circa 1969. The high green on the signal indicates that an eastbound will be passing shortly. The painting was originally commissioned by David Wright, the owner of the Wright Wire Company, whose factory stands in the background.
No:18
\HBoston & Maine\h
watercolor
\IJohn D. White Collection\i
This might literally be a milk run way up the branch. 4-6-0 No. 51 steams through a trademark Boston & Maine covered bridge toting a refrigerated milk car or two and what we believe the artist intended to be an open-platform combine coach. The teakettle needs to expend minimal effort on this level track, so there's very little steam. The era? Maybe around World War I.
No:19
\HBaltimore & Ohio\h
1971, oil
\IGeorge Williams Collection\i
The Baltimore & Ohio, a smaller railroad, nevertheless rivaled the Pennsylvania when it came to bigtime steam railroading. Case in point: EM-1 class 2-8-8-4 No. 7621 storms westward up the Cheat River grade out of Rowlesburg, West Virginia. The B&O had thirty of these, built by Baldwin during the war years of 1944 and 1945, which were desperately needed to haul mountains of coal out of the West Virginia mines. Some believed them to be among the handsomest articulated locomotives ever constructed.
No:20
\HBaltimore & Ohio\h
1982, oil
\IStephen Strauss Collection\i
It was a beautiful train but, alas, it lost tons of money and did not endure. Tastefully streamlined heavy Pacific 5301 and its "streamstyled" train streaks across southeastern Ohio with the Cincinnatian in 1947, the year this train was inaugurated by the passenger-friendly Baltimore & Ohio. Three years later, the equipment was transferred to another run. The four streamlined Pacifics did just fine, and more's the pity they did not have long-lasting success.
No:21
\HPennsylvania Railroad\h
watercolor
\ICourtesy of the Fogg Family\i
In profile we have a study of the workaday world of railroading in the steam era. Cab curtains are a necessity as Pennsylvania Railroad M-1 Mountain 6811 gets a good roll on an eastbound manifest freight near Blairsville, Pennsylvania, on a cold January 1948 day. Behind lies the Steel City of Pittsburgh. The 6811 and its mates would provide dependable service for nearly thirty-five years. Can't you just hear the crunch of the snow as you sneak up on this snowy scene?
No:22
\HPennsylvania Railroad\h
1985
\ICourtesy of the Fogg Family\i
Shown here is a Pennsylvania Railroad classic: the Raymond Loewy-designed GG1 electric locomotive. Crews called them "motors," and the railroad stabled 139 GG1's at the peak. Pennsy GG1 No. 4935 is rolling at better than a mile a minute through the snow at Bradford Hills, Pennsylvania. This Brunswick Green 200-ton powerhouse is making quick work of the Clocker it has in tow this November 1941 morning.
No:23
\HPennsylvania Railroad\h
\ICourtesy of Barriger Library, Univ. of Missouri-St. Louis\i
Only a very few Howard Fogg originals reside in the John W. Barriger III National Railroad Library, a part of the St. Louis Mercantile Library at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. This painting was a personal gift from Howard to Barriger. It showcases K4 steam locomotive 5471 hauling a passenger train. It is interesting that the Barriger Library's Fogg collection deals with the mighty Pennsylvania. Barriger started his transportation career in 1917 for the Standard Railroad of the World but after entering the ranks of management, he never worked for the PRR again. Nevertheless, Fogg knew that Mr. B had a soft spot in his heart for the Pennsy.
No:24
\HPennsylvania Railroad\h
\ICourtesy of Barriger Library, University of Missouri-St. Louis\i
In this painting of K4 steam locomotive 5471, the "JB" Tower is fictitious. Those happen to be the initials of John Barriger, the recipient of this painting which was a personal gift from Howard Fogg.
No:25
\HPennsylvania Railroad\h
1996, watercolor
\IE.T. Harley Collection\i
This is an image of the mighty Pennsy that brings on a rush of adrenalin. M1 Mountain 6753 with a heavy train slows to a crawl as it does battle with the one-half percent grade at Forge, Pennsylvania, in the summer of 1951. A crew change is only twenty miles ahead at Altoona, where Pennsy built the 6753 and hundreds of other locomotives in its Juniata shops. Sadly, this is Howard Fogg's last painting. By 1996, when he completed this, he was fighting his last, losing battle with cancer.
No:26
\HPort Perry, Pennsylvania\h
\ICourtesy of the Fogg Family\i
Port Perry, Pennsylvania, was, in Barriger's words, the greatest concentration of rail freight traffic in the world. He commissioned Fogg to paint it. In doing so, Fogg captured four railroads on three levels. The P&LE is in the immediate foreground, with a Baltimore & Ohio train on its parallel track in the distance. The Union and Pennsylvania railroads cross overhead. At the extreme right, the Monongahela River can be made out; it carries a great deal of barge traffic.
No:27
\HM.K. Lumber Company\h
1968, watercolor
\IAl and Bernadette Chione Collection\i
Spanish moss hangs from the trees in great quantities as Shay 41 of the M.K. Lumber Company crosses a trestle in the cypress swamps of Florida. Howard created the wood-burning geared locomotive from his imagination, but it is archetypically the Old South. Florida, Georgia, and Alabama abounded with these primitive logging railroads, all of which had vanished by the 1960s. You'd have to go to a third world country to see something like this today!
No:28
\HChicago & Illinois Midland\h
1979, watercolor
\IDonald Duke Collection\i
Though Howard relished bigtime railroading, he did not ignore short lines-especially if they had big power! Here's Chicago & Illinois Midland 2-10-2 No. 701, Lima-built in 1931, heading south through Oakford for Taylorville with a long string of empty coal hoppers. Owned by Commonwealth Edison in Chicago, the Midland was built for the sole purpose of hauling coal to captive CE generating stations. It's still doing it. The 121-mile line is located smack in the middle of Illinois, so its name is accurate.
No:29
\HThe Milwaukee Road\h
watercolor
\ICourtesy of the Fogg Family\i
The North Woods Hiawatha, powered by G class streamlined Ten-wheeler 11, nears the northern end of its 168-mile run between New Lisbon and Minocqua, Wisconsin in 1938. The Milwaukee Road specialized in providing classy passenger service on a shoestring. Lightweight cars were built in company shops to company designs and workaday steam engines were creatively streamlined by Otto Kuhler and company artisans to furnish smart-looking motive power. The 10 and its sister 11 dated to 1900 and were streamlined expressly for this train in 1937.
No:30
\HSoo Line\h
1949, watercolor
\IAl and Bernadette Chione Collection\i
Howard Fogg is strongly identified with Alco locomotives, because he once worked for the company. But here's one that is definitely off the beaten path. Brand-new FA's 207-A and 207-B are depicted somewhere in the northern Wisconsin woods in 1948 with a lowly freight, despite the fact that the machines were designed for main line freight service. When co-author Al Chione asked Howard why he placed these Alcos on such a rickety branch line, he pointed out that almost all of his Alco paintings show main line operations, and he decided it was time to project a maid-of-all-work image. This he has done. Note that he signed his full name on the lower right side of this painting.
No:31
\HChesapeake & Ohio\h
1969, watercolor
\IAllan Farnsworth Collection\i
The C&O was another of those eastern railroads with a major presence in the Midwest. Black diamonds-trillions of them-made fortunes for the C&O, but they called for some mighty heavy lifting. To wit: Allegheny 2-6-6-6 No. 1659 passes Texas type 3039 at Fostoria, Ohio, in, let us say, 1944. Empties go east, and loads head west in this view, which may well be the best example of Lima Super Power ever painted by Howard Fogg. Heck, there's not much else in this picture but super power!
No:32
\HChicago, Burlington & Quincy\h
1976, oil
\IMark Taggart Collection\i
Before the post office "modernized" things, trains carried most of the first class mail, which got through regardless of the weather. Railroads had solid mail trains, and here is one on the Burlington making its daily stop at a small town in Central Iowa. The year is 1938, the town is unknown, but that garage on the left is certainly identified-by the name of the man who commissioned the painting! Also known is the motive power: 4-6-4 No. 3005, a 1930 Baldwin product, one of twelve class S-4's. From a study of the Official Guide, we'd say that this train started in Chicago and will tie up in Denver.
No:33
\HRock Island Lines\h
watercolor
\IColorado Railroad Museum Collection\i
Following shortly behind a Rocky Mountain Rocket streamliner delayed by a storm on the Great Plains, Rock Island 5035, a dual service Northern, rushes a westbound freight through snow covered landscape near Limon, Colorado, where the Denver and Colorado Springs lines split. The semaphore signal guarding this train has dropped, so all is protected.
No:34
\HKansas City Southern\h
1983, watercolor
\IRichard J. Cook Collection\i
It was Arthur Stillwell's dream to link the Midwest with the Gulf of Mexico via a short-cut line that would beat out the big boys of railroading. He did it, but at a price: his Kansas City Southern zigzagged up through the Ozarks and over the Winding Stair and Ouachita mountains. This demanded big power. Howard Fogg captures here the essence of the most modern super power in Lima-built 2-10-4 No. 904 lugging a heavy freight up and over. It's a hot summer's day, the grades are heavy, but this train will be in DeQueen, Arkansas, on time. The date could be almost anytime after the 1937 delivery of these brutes.
No:35
\HUintah Railway\h
1990, oil
\IAl and Bernadette Chione Collection\i
If any Colorado narrow gauge railroad could have been called "modern" it was the Uintah Railway in the northwest part of the state, built specifically to haul gilsonite. Well, at least its steam power was interesting. We're witnessing articulated engine 51, fresh from Baldwin in 1928, on a northbound freight en route to the mines in remote Book Cliffs. This coal-burning 2-6-6-2 tank locomotive, one of two, was custom-designed for the 66 degree curves and the backbreaking 7.5 percent grade of Baxter Pass. When the Uintah ceased in 1939, the 51 and its twin went on to Oregon's Sumpter Valley Railroad. Howard based this painting on a photo by legendary rail lensman Otto Perry.
No:36
\HColorado Midland\h
1964, watercolor
\IAl and Bernadette Chione Collection\i
It is the summer of 1890 at the summit of Trout Creek Pass. Standard gauge Colorado Midland Consolidation 7, with a westbound passenger train, crosses over a narrow gauge Denver, Leadville & Gunnison mason bogie as it works a westbound freight out of the South Park. This painting was done for the Reverend Morris Cafky's excellent 1965 Colorado Midland. No photograph exists of a train on either railroad at this location, let alone one showing a chance meeting like this one.
No:37
\HDenver & Rio Grande Western\h
1987, oil
\IHermosa Graphics Collection\i
The week before Christmas, 1947, we find two D&RGW narrow gauge trains at Mears Junction, near Salida. All three locomotives are K-37 class 2-8-2s, rebuilt in 1928 and 1930 from standard gauge engines to help ease the motive power crunch on Cumbres, Poncha, and Marshall Passes. The 497 is eastbound, having left Alamosa earlier in the day en route to Salida. While 497's crew is almost finished with their day, the crews of 493 and 496 are just starting theirs. Having been called out of Salida on a flanger train a short time before, a trainmaster is giving the crews instructions to clear snowy Marshall Pass. The snow train will be on its way shortly. Due to the perspective, Howard said it was among the two or three toughest he ever did.
No:38
\HDenver & Rio Grande Western\h
1993, oil
\IDavid and Jean Gross Collection\i
Tennessee Pass could be a busy place, even in the dead of night. What we have here, under a silvery winter moonlight in 1938, is a little Denver & Rio Grande Western interlude at the east portal. Huge, dependable 2-8-8-2 No. 3615 has helped an eastbound freight up the severe grade out of Minturn, and turned on the wye track beyond the station. It's now getting a needed drink. Meanwhile 1701, a 4-8-4, heads west to the tunnel portal and on down the mountain with a mail-express extra. It was here that the first Central Traffic Control west of the Mississippi River was installed in 1927 to speed up train and helper engine moves on the west side of the pass.
No:39
\HDenver & Rio Grande Western\h
1987, oil
\IAl and Bernadette Chione Collection\i
With the temperature hovering around zero, D&RGW class K-28 Mikados 473 and 477 heading up the combined San Juan and a Chili Line train depart South Alamosa Yard in March 1940. Their immediate destination is Antonito, Colorado, where the two trains will be separated. The 473 will go south with a mixed train down the Chili Line to Santa Fe, New Mexico. It will first travel through Tres Piedras and down the 4 percent grade of Barranca Hill into Embudo. Sister 477 will depart west with the San Juan for Durango. On the way it will cross Cumbres Pass and call at Chama, New Mexico, for servicing. Then it will visit Lumberton and Dulce, return to Colorado via Pagosa Junction, Arboles, Allison, and Ignacio, and-finally-steam into Durango to tie up. Alas, the Chili Line was abandoned a year later and the San Juan was removed in 1951. However, part of the Alamosa-Durango line lives on as the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad. All is not lost.
No:40
\HColorado & Southern\h
1973, watercolor
\IAl and Bernadette Chione Collection\i
The fury of winter knew no limits up on Boreas Pass. Its elevation-11,493 feet-ensured that every year would see blizzards which would stop trains in their tracks for days, if not weeks. But the narrow gauge rails of the Denver, South Park & Pacific reached the mines of Leadville, and that was important to the economy of Colorado. So, men and machines fought to keep the line open, and did so right up until successor Colorado & Southern abandoned it in the late 1930s. Just look at the struggle here! Desperate, half-frozen men on top of rotary plows and locomotives, grimly determined to defeat nature. Sometimes they succeeded.
No:41
\HDenver & Rio Grande Western\h
1992, oil
\IDominic Chione Collection\i
In December 1940, D&RGW class C-19 Consolidation is on the business end of a southbound inspection special as it stops for water at Villa Grove, at the north end of Colorado's San Luis Valley. Though it's 2 p.m., the mercury has not managed to get out of the minus column. It is cold! The head-end crew performs smartly; the VP of Operations is aboard, snug in the warmth of a business car. The servicing of 341 will soon be complete and the train will run non-stop 53 miles on nearly tangent track to Alamosa, overlooked by the Sangre de Cristo mountains.
No:42
\HDenver & Rio Grande\h
1984
\ICourtesy of the Fogg Family\i
Denver & Rio Grande Ten-wheeler 701, an 1896 Baldwin, stops at La Veta, Colorado, in 1900, with the Colorado and New Mexico Express. The daily excitement proceeds apace: mail is transferred, the engineer oils around, the fireman and head brakeman visit, and a mail pouch is handed down by the horseman. Howard Fogg captures a piquant moment.
No:43
\HRio Grande Southern\h
1988, oil
\IAl and Bernadette Chione Collection\i
In this image we get two railroads for the price of one. The place is Lizard Head Pass on the Rio Grande Southern, not far from Telluride. Both engines are class K-27 outside frame Mikados built in 1903. The 463 belongs to the Denver & Rio Grande Western while 461, a D&RGW hand-me-down, works on home rails for the RGS. It's good news that engine 463 is now owned by the city of Antonito, Colorado, and is on lease to the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railway.
No:44
\HDenver & Rio Grande Western\h
1990, oil
\IAl and Bernadette Chione Collection\i
Number 476, with the Chili Line mixed, has met and passed the southbound freight extra in the distance and, having taken a big drink of water, resumes its slow trek north to Antonito. We are at Embudo, New Mexico, at the foot of Barranca Hill where the narrow gauge drops down to join the Rio Grande, seen to our left. Alas, the Chili Line to Santa Fe disappeared too early to delight any railfan south of middle age, but at least the Embudo tank and depot remain today, well preserved in the dry climate of "The Land of Enchantment." Also preserved is the 169, on display in Alamosa, Colorado.
No:45
\HColorado & Southern\h
1989, oil
\ICharlie and Lisa Lamm Collection\i
One hundred years ago Colorado narrow gauge railroads battled almost insurmountable odds to keep going during the fierce Rocky Mountain winters. These were rough times, daily pitting man against nature. Howard Fogg takes us back to Christmas week of 1900 to show us Colorado & Southern 57 and 71 leaving Alpine for Gunnison. The train is several hours late, but it's going through, snow or no snow. In the background Denver, Leadville & Gunnison rotary 064 awaits its summons.
No:46
\HDenver & Rio Grande Western\h
1988, oil
\IFred Chione Collection\i
Fifty or more years ago, Colorado standard gauge mountain railroading looked the same, only in larger scale. At least that is true on the Denver & Rio Grande Western's Tennessee Pass line, by 1947 (the year depicted in this painting) the railroad's secondary main line through to Salt Lake City. D&RGW stabled an impressive fleet of 4-8-4 Northern type steam locomotives and Howard has chosen engine 1801 to lead the Scenic Limited across the summit. Fortunately, storm clouds do not threaten us this day.
No:47
\HDenver & Rio Grande Western\h
watercolor
\IColorado Railroad Museum Collection\i
In modern times, the Moffat Tunnel route has replaced Tennessee Pass as the favored route from Denver to Salt Lake. We are at the east portal of the Moffat Tunnel to watch F-7 No. 5704 lead an eastbound freight manifest downhill to Denver. The year is, shall we say, 1958. As we near the century's end, Union Pacific has decided to re-open Tennessee Pass, after having just closed it in 1997, as the Moffat Tunnel route cannot handle the ever increasing volume of traffic that UP is enjoying.
No:48
\HDenver & Rio Grande Western\h
oil
\IRichard Fogg Collection\i
Fierce-looking Denver & Rio Grande Western 3707, a class L-105 Challenger built by Baldwin in 1938, rolls an eastbound reefer block along the Colorado River through spectacular Glenwood Canyon. This scene is representative of the late 1940s, an era when these high speed freight locomotives were unsurpassed in their glory.
No:49
\HDenver & Salt Lake Railroad\h
1985, watercolor
\IDenver Public Library, Western History Department Collection\i
Before the Moffat Tunnel was completed under the easternmost reach of the Rocky Mountains, the Denver & Salt Lake had to go over the top. Here D&SL No. 208, a 2-6-6-0 articulated, begins the tortuous westbound climb over Rollins Pass, with the tiny mountain community of Tolland, Colorado, far below. James Peak stands in the background. In 1927 the Moffat Tunnel would be completed here, thus eliminating the operating nightmare that 208 and a helper engine are experiencing as they hammer away uphill. This particular engine was originally delivered to the predecessor Denver, Northwestern & Pacific in 1910. Howard liked wintry scenes; this one is not too far away from his home in Boulder.
No:50
\HSouthern Railway\h
1983
\ICourtesy of the Fogg Family\i
The Southern Railway was a spit-and-polish operation, moving people and tonnage not only between Washington, D.C., and Atlanta, but over what at one time was a dense network of secondary passenger routes reaching points in the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, and back up the famed "Rathole" to Cincinnati. What we see here is likely the Asheville Special, with 4-8-2 No. 1457 needing a rear-end helper to push the train uphill to the resort city. Its 69-inch drivers were tailor made for the undulating territory. The autumnal beauty of North Carolina was a pleasure for Howard to paint, especially since it provided a marvelous counterpoint to the classy green locomotives-a Southern passenger train trademark.
No:51
\HPennsy's Powerful GG1\h
watercolor
\ICharles Ditlefsen Collection\i
One of America's greatest contributions to railroad industrial design is the GG1 locomotive, shaped by Raymond Loewy for the Pennsylvania Railroad's New York-Washington electrification. Winter snows seldom stayed these sleek couriers from the swift completion of their Northeast Corridor runs.
No:52
\HTelluride Twilight\h
1991, oil
\IAl and Bernadette Chione Collection\i
Howard Fogg had to talk Al Chione into this one. It's the winter of 1950, and as the sun's last rays color the towering San Miguel Mountains east of the end of track at Pandora, Rio Grande Southern No. 455 starts the trek west out of Telluride, Colorado.
No:53
\HBig Boys\h
1992, oil
\ITom and Denise Klinger Collection\i
Big steam locomotives-the bigger the better-aroused in Howard Fogg an excitement that was reflected in his artistry. In this 1992 painting we see two of the world's largest steam locomotives, Big Boys 4002 and 4004, fight their way around the sweeping curve above Buford with a heavy westbound freight under a fine Wyoming summer sky. Sherman Hill summit is about three miles ahead. These mammoth locomotives helped Union Pacific move record tonnage over its main line during World War II, and Howard sets this scene in 1950, when steam still ruled.
