Ted and Sylvia Blishak write

the Leisure Rail column for

Passenger Train Journal

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Information below is reprinted by permission of the publisher, White River Productions, Inc.  www.whiteriverproductions.com

Santa Fe, New Mexico, May 2, 2007:

Your car attendant is a cowboy. You're being pulled by old yellow locomotive with the squarest of noses, No. 93, a GP16 rebuilt from a GP9 built in 1952 by General Motors' Electro-Motive Division (EMD). The top speed is 15 mph, and the train is sauntering through the high desert wilderness of New Mexico, headed for Lamy. The engineer, Kim Bartell, is a 21st Century hippie with a pony tail, and he's one of those fortunate people who enjoys going to work every day.

"I've been doing this for three years, and I'm not tired of it yet," he grins. "It's beautiful country, and the air is crystal clear. And tell PTJ readers that cab rides can be arranged."

Today's train includes coaches slickly painted in dark green and gold. This railroad runs freight, so on occasion freight cars are picked up or dropped off, too.

Left in the yards today are an open flatcar, a caboose, and a vintage, ex-Santa Fe Turquoise Room Pleasure Dome Lounge car, No. 502, that Pullman-Standard built for the "real" pre-Amtrak Super Chief in 1950. (Always next to the dining car's galley, the Turquoise Room was a private dining room for groups of up to a dozen exclusive first-class passengers. The main lounge area on the lower level sported huge free-standing chrome ashtrays with holders for highball glasses—the type you've seen in books about streamliners. The Mid-Century Modern stairs leading to the dome were illuminated Lucite, and the single swivel armchairs upstairs ensured that you could view the passing scene from every angle. Engineer Bartell claims his father took a home movie aboard the car in its heyday, showing the speedometer inside the car registering 110 mph.)

The SFSR operates the round trip to Lamy, which takes 4-1/2 hours, year round. A shorter round trip "Hot Shot Run" takes passengers to the rim of the scenic Galisteo Basin and back. For Friday cocktails at sunset, April through October, there's the High-Desert Highball Train; Saturday night's schedule includes a barbeque dinner, campfire, and live music under the cottonwood trees next to the BNSF main line at Lamy. All departures include a snack bar on board.

Here's a bit of history: First, there was the Santa Fe Trail, traversed by Conestoga wagons. Later, the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe company laid rails between Chicago and Los Angeles, but because of the steep grades involved, the main line bypassed Santa Fe through Lamy, 18 miles south. A spur was later constructed to connect the two and carried passengers until 1949. The AT&SF continued to run freight over the route, but in 1992 concluded that the slow speed restrictions made it impractical. The current owners, including actor Michael Gross, bought it for freight purposes and to keep about 1,600 semi trucks per year off the City of Santa Fe's already overcrowded roadways.

Passengers sometimes persuaded the SFSR to let them hitch a ride in the caboose to enjoy the scenery. The idea caught on, and eventually passengers cars were included to make a "mixed train" with both freight and passenger cars.

Reservations are required. Call 1-888-989-8600, or visit www.thetraininsantafe.com for prices, schedules, or information.

A ride on the Santa Fe Southern may yield equipment that runs the gamut of basic freight cars and heavyweight former Jersey Central commuter coaches to the haute Pleasure Dome lounge car that was once a signature car of the Super Chief. BOTH PHOTOS, SYLVIA BUSHAK

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