AI in Chama, NM. Leica M2, Summicron 35mm V4

On another dreich weekend afternoon, I went searching in my photo archives of slides and negatives from that era before I went digital.  In a folder, I found a series from May of 1994.  Back then, when Editor and I were still dating, we went on a trip to Colorado and New Mexico to ride a narrow gauge train through the mountains from Durango to Silverton.  Once again, today I have used digital scanning, and the Topaz AI program to bring long-forgotten images into the 21st century.
As we were driving from Albuquerque to Durango, we stopped for lunch, and discovered that we were in the steam town of Chama, terminus of another narrow gauge tourist railway, the Cumbres & Toltec.  Both the Durango & Silverton and the Cumbres & Toltec were part of a network of 3-foot narrow gauge lines developed by the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad to penetrate the Rockies in the late 19th century.  3-foot was chosen as the gauge because, as we have learned from railways in South Africa, a narrow gauge line is cheaper and easier to build than standard gauge.  There can be sharper curves and steeper grades and less expensive earthworks.
In Chama, the depot and locomotive shed are directly across the street from the little hotel where we stopped to have lunch.  I went off to take photographs in the yard.  Astonishingly, nobody stopped me.  In retrospect, this is a tourist railway, and gricers always want to take pictures of the trains.  Nobody batted an eyelid.  
The subject of the Main, is Class K-37 #497, a 2-8-2 Mikado type, built by Baldwin Locomotive Works of Philadelphia in 1930.  I am indebted to Wikipedia for this information.  The Ks were - and are - very capable, agile locomotives, perfect for the job at hand.  Being Baldwin products, they're still going strong nearly 100 years later.  On that day, #497 was the “hostler”, pushing carriages and dead locomotives around the yard.  The scan looks best in mono. 
For the Extra, I was able to walk, unhindered, into the locomotive shed where I could catch another image of #497 at work.  The color negative scanned well this time.

Here's a great link to switching activity in the Chama yard thirty years later.  Not much has changed - and that's a good thing!