Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad

Take a ride on one of the finest scenic trains in North America.

Seriously - this place is one of my all-time favorites for many reasons. Do yourself a favor and find a way to Chama, New Mexico! I will return again and again! It is a truly a gem.

Fun fact: this video features all four of the Cumbres & Toltec's operable K-36 class steam locomotives. Grades reach up to 4% on this twisting and turning route, and the locomotives and crew work hard on every run.

(note - that's cumbrestoltec dot ORG, not dot com)

0:00 Chama, New Mexico
0:55 The Jukes Tree
1:50 Climbing the 4% Grade
3:05 Cresco Water Tower
3:49 Windy Point
6:05 Cumbres Pass
7:13 The Desert
7:55 Sublette and The Valley Below
8:42 The Toltec Gorge
9:02 Los Pinos Valley
10:30 Tanglefoot Curve
11:26 Downhill

[jrayproductions]

Damned fine filmwork. You tell a story, with your shots. Something some of these railfan videos are seriously lacking.

[thomasflanagan]

I’m putting this railroad on my bucket list to ride on it.

Who agrees with me?

[higherlearning]

Got the opportunity to ride on this train about 29 yrs ago. Seeing this brings back a lot of good memories. It's nice to see it hasn't changed

[MrNJT]

If there is one scenic railroad I'm trying to get to, It's this one. I love this video! Fantastic work Joseph!

[nathancorcoran]

The Cumbres & Toltec is a great railroad.

[Hey_its_Koda]

As a kid my parents would take us camping and fishing up near chama and i loved hearing and seeing the train and the smoke. I can still remember the green forest smell from the rain storms.

[funniebunnieu]

💕💕💕 ~ I rode on this train, every summer, as a kid. We would leave Texas and head to Colorado, for camping and fishing. We always stopped in Chama, for the train ride... Thank you for this wonderful video.

[sagestats]

Best vacation trip of my life. We had everything including at thunderstorm and watching the crew clear a couple of rock slides. Well worth the trip and joining Friends to help preserve the wonderful asset.

[TrainLordJC]

Beautifully shot video of this awesome steam train ride. Unfortunately in 1988 when I was (as a Dutch Australian) driving my 1969 VW campervan in this very area across the US I did not know about this train ride. But certainly wonderful to see it on my big 75"TV screen showing me what I missed out on.

[petermartin]

Absolutely stunning! Brilliant piece of film. Visited some years ago on trip from UK and bought back fond memories. We were in an open wagon behind the loco and got the full effect - and my old SLR 35mm camera still has coal dust in it! What a railroad. The scenery is beyond belief and is what the States is all about. Fantastic. We haven't really got anything like that over here. Thank you.

[frankgutierrez]

My Father is from Chama. I never rode the Train. We would go watch it start, and drive if the mountain to see it go by.

[Markus_Strinning]

Joseph, this is among the best train movies on youtube ... if not the best! This is captured with great knowledge for the cinematic artwork and a trained eye to capture trains and railways in its proper environments. High quality sound recording without music, speaker voice and other disturbing sound makes it perfect. Looking forward to future train stories. Keep up the good work! 👍

[bigappa]

This is one of the best videos of the C&T I've seen.

[fallingup]

I finally got to ride the C&T a few weeks back on the entire route; also with #484 as our locomotive. It's my new favourite.

[TheDCGuitar]

There’s a rhythm to that train unlike any I’ve ever heard. It feels like a song

[allanaliversidge]

A big thank you from down here in Aussie world. Great scenery, great locomotive and great footage . A very relaxing trip on a beautiful railroad. Much appreciated. Al

[stephensfarms]

Well done video and sound fantastic felt like I was right there with u on the train 🚂. Great photography and Audio sound. 👍👍👍👍👍🇺🇸🇺🇸‼️

[normanyates]

Set off from Antonio the heat was tremendous, up to the highest point where travelling in the open Gondolas the snow was 3 ft thick and cold as the arctic, glad of the cowboy meal in the chuckhouse at halfway, wouldn’t have missed it for the world.

[bruceraykiewicz]

Absolutely beautiful video Joe. Brought back many fond memories from my trip out there a long time ago, July 1983. Thanks. Sincerely, Bruce

[narrowtracks]

Joseph! what a wonderful video, I felt I was actually there, could almost smell the sulphur!! Well done. First class.Thank you for sharing.