What the hell is going on in New Mexico?!

[JayhawkSD]

9. I have very fond memories of New Mexico, myself.

Lived there many years ago, in Belen, just south of Albuquerque on the Rio Grande River when I was eight and nine. Belen is in a broad valley with The Sandia Mountains to the East and the "mesas" to the West, semi-desert and beautiful country.

We would ride the doodlebug up to the "city," which was little bigger than a village then, but the trip was a big adventure.

The Santa Fa railroad mainline came through Belen and freight trains picked up "helper engines" there for the climb up out of the Rio Grande valley. The motive power coming in was usually diesel, but the helpers were steam engines; huge things called Berkshires with a 2-8-4 wheel arrangement. Sometimes as many as eight would be added to a long freight train, front middle and rear of the train, and they did not have multiple unit controls like diesels do, so getting the trains rolling was quite a process. The only way engineers could talk to each other was with the engine whistles, so there would be much whistling to start with and as the train started to move. They would all start to go and then one would slip his drivers. About the time he hit the sand and got himself together someone else would lose traction. Etc.

It was always fun to go down and watch a long freight get going. From 0 to 3mph could take forever. Once they got rolling the engineers could all judge drawbar pull and would be in unison pretty quickly. Then the train would pick up speed pretty quick, and the sound of all those big steam engines working in unison was awesome.