Sky Railway 93 Cab Ride! Santa Fe to MP 2!

In part two of our adventure riding in the cab of Sky Railway’s Santa Fe Scenic adventure, we depart the Santa Fe Depot and move through restricted limits Santa Fe. Concrete ties and welded rail give way to jointed rail and old ties once we pass CP Hondo and make our way toward milepost 2 which overlooks the Galisteo Basin.
Sky Railway exists today because of a group of determined citizens in Santa Fe, New Mexico. No, we’re not talking about George R.R. Martin and Bill Banowsky. We’re talking about the good citizens of Santa Fe in 1879, who were very unhappy that their city wasn't on the mainline of the Atchison, Topeka, & Santa Fe Railroad. Because of the topography of Santa Fe, which has an elevation of 7199 feet, the railroad had to skirt around the city through Galisteo and Los Cerrillos before turning south toward Albuquerque near the Rio Grande River.
The good citizens of Santa Fe moved to assure the town had a connection to the main line. Willing to foot part of the bill, they called a bond election on two issues of $79,000 and $71,000. The vote was 191-72 and 192-67 in favor of the expenditures. "An election never took place in Santa Fe which was so one-sided," exulted a happy newspaper editor. The spur was quickly built (the first train pulled into Santa Fe on February 16, 1880), and where it joined the main line, the town of Lamy was born.
With its connection to Santa Fe and proximity to Glorieta Pass, Lamy became a natural place for the railroad to dispatch helper locomotives to assist trains up the 2%+ grade.
To get trains over the pass, a climb of 2,000 feet in about 10 miles was necessary, and extra engines had to be attached. Lamy was the logical location for crews and maintenance facilities. Two or three locomotives would be added to the normal complement of engines on each train. The 10-mile trip consumed about an hour. As one former Lamy resident remembers it, the scene was one of "smoke, cinder, steam and gusto!" At the top of the grade, the Lamy locomotives would turn around on a "Y" and come home.
After diesel locomotives started running on the line with their ability to link together, steam power faded away and Lamy became a quiet village with few residents.
In 1992, the Santa Fe Railroad, or AT&SF ended operations on the Lamy to Santa Fe branch and a group of local business people purchased the track to continue freight service and eventually passenger service.
On August 12, 2012, the railroad was featured in the AMC TV series Breaking Bad season 5 episode "Dead Freight", in which one of the railroad's locomotives was delayed at a highway crossing in order to facilitate the theft of 1,000 gallons of the industrial chemical methylamine from a tank car near the end of the train. The locomotive featured was SFSR 07, a GP7u. In the credits, special thanks were given to the railroad for making the episode possible.
The railroad's business fluctuated greatly; in 2004, it hauled 401 carloads of freight, and in 2007 carried 25,907 passengers, but in 2009 these counts decreased to 25 and 12,208, both record lows. Towards the end of its existence, the railroad changed from separate freight and passenger operations to mixed trains at least twice a week, depending on the season. The railroad also offered charter and special trains.
After the close of the 2012 operating season, things took a turn for the worse. On May 23, 2013, the Santa Fe Southern board chairman announced that he had laid-off all of the railroad's full-time staffers and many seasonal employees. The railroad did not operate any trains during the year 2013.
On April 24, 2014, the Las Vegas Railway Express (LVRE) announced that it had reached an agreement with the Santa Fe Southern to jointly operate excursion trains that summer. LVRE would provide the capital to restore the line to operating condition, while Santa Fe Southern would operate the trains.
On September 26, 2014, despite a reportedly-successful first summer, LVRE informed the Santa Fe Southern that it would be terminating the operation. Regular operations ceased except for a few charters such as the one that occurred for the American Association of Private Rail Car Owners in September of 2019.
In 2019, Santa Fe residents George R.R. Martin, Bill Banowsky, and Catherine Oppenheimer purchased the railroad and rebranded it as Sky Railway. The railroad features themed excursions between Santa Fe and Lamy with varying lengths of travel and duration. The rolling stock has been painted by Joerael Numina, a Santa Fe muralist, in a dazzling array of blues and whites to complement the New Mexico landscape.
The locomotives still bear the reporting marks of Santa Fe Southern Railway (SFSR). SFSR 93, a GP16 built in September of 1952 is painted to resemble a wolf, while SFSR 07, built one month earlier in August of 1952 is a GP7u is painted to represent a dragon.
07 was built for the AT&SF and originally numbered 2744.

[@DomAZ]

That was awesome, an amazing ride and interesting to see an old Cadillac in the middle of nowhere.👍

[@YardLimit]

Thanks, Dom! That was pretty cool!

[@johnotooledoggames2336]

☘️🇮🇪 amazing view on the train 🚆 very good 👍

[@YardLimit]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@docsrailroad]

Awesome video! Cabrides are always amazing.

[@YardLimit]

Thank you!

[@waysiderailfan]

Really cool view!

[@YardLimit]

Thanks Jacob!

[@SouthwestRailroadPhotography]

Good stuff my friend.

[@YardLimit]

Thanks, Adrian!

[@paulmatulavich7321]

Sorry no Lamy this trip. But nice slow pace so could study the right of way.

[@YardLimit]

No Lamy is disappointing a lot of people, although there are some excursions that go there like the brunch trip tomorrow goes to Lamy for brunch at the Legal Tender.

[@wavesnbikes]

@@YardLimit Why aren't they going all the way to Lamy? It's only a couple more miles...

[@YardLimit]

@@wavesnbikes
Who knows? That's the question everyone has asked and the suggestion I've made to the railroad. Everyone wants to see Lamy!

[@ferenctakacs3138]

Érdekes videó lett!😀👍

[@YardLimit]

Thank you!

[@wavesnbikes]

Thank you for sharing!! GREAT STUFF!!
How much freight they hauling these days?

[@YardLimit]

Thanks. They aren't hauling freight.

[@joelmarksbury4376]

26:07 Heisenberg was here.

[@gabeich2839]

They better keep an eye on their methlamene