Santa Fe Southern Railroad - A GREAT STORY!

John_Perkowski wrote: ↑Mon Jun 15, 2020 11:23 am I’m confused. I thought New Mexico was running their state service to Santa Fe. I thought the trackage was in operation.

Yes, it is. That's the New Mexico Railrunner you're referring to, running between Santa Fe, Albuquerque and Belen.

The line in question used to be called the Santa Fe Southern, and it runs south to Lamy, which is the closest Amtrak gets to Santa Fe. A totally different piece of railroad that NMRX runs on, but the two lines do meet at a junction west of Lamy, and then continue south to Albuquerque.

The branch from Lamy was there first,The DRGW narrow gauge,and the New Mexico Central followed,NM Central became part of ATSF and abandoned,the DRGW "Chile" line followed,
NMRX rebuilt the original Branch ROW from I-25 to End of line at the Santa Fe Depot,NMRX built a New ROW in the I-25 medium to tthe Mainline at CP Madrid in the Kewa reservation.
The original ROW from I-25 back to Lamy is barely Class 1 at present time,

It will be interesting to see where George and his two partners go with this acquisition. Three, as I recall, of the passenger cars, including a former Blue Comet combine, are ex-Central Railroad of New Jersey and frequently through 1967 or so passed through George's hometown of Bayonne, NJ before being sold. I usually see and speak with George for a few minutes once a year or so at a science fiction / fantasy volunteer run convention and would love to talk to him about it, but so far this year the cons are being cancelled due to the pandemic.

SFSR as formed as a shortline when there was still some freight customers on the branch, last freight hurah was pipes for a water project that allowed hte city of Santa Fe tie into ABQ's
San Juan water project pipe line .
Along with the CNJ Combine and coach,a ex-ATSF Dome car is part of fleet,in need of some interior restoration and a generator to power the lights and A/C systems
An ex Amtrak/SCL diner is "stuffed and mounted "at Lamy,there 's a flat car that's used as the "open air" car in the consist ,along with an ex-ATSF Caboose(way car).
All will need Air brake work and repairs if this was to be used for a ride from SF to Las Vegas NM to a dinner served at he restored Harvey Hotel next to the depot there.
Both of their GP-10's will need sshop time as well.

Very interesting to see this operation back (hopefully) with new owners. What do you guys feel was the downfall of this line during previous attempts, and what will the new owners need to offer that hasn't been done before? I've rode some great tourist lines where I can't wait to come back, and then I've been to some where I felt that they got my money, and I can write that one of my list. Also, are you sure it was Michael Keaton and not Michael Gross who was one of the early owners of the SFSR??

I rode the Santa Fe Southern maybe 20 years ago. I don't think the line was ever very fast - a couple of steep grades, including climbing north out of Lamy, and some fairly sharp curves. But no memorable views or scenery. If I had a free day in ABQ I'd ride the Rail Runner to Belen and railfan the transcon. If I had a free weekend in ABQ I'd drive up to Chama if anything was going on there. Riding Santa Fe - Lamy again would come after revisiting Abo Canyon.