Santa Fe Southern

The Santa Fe Southern is a freight railroad that carries passengers. The Santa Fe Southern is an excursion railroad that hauls a few freight cars every now and then. It's hard to tell which of those is the most accurate statement. I'm sure that they are obliged by federal regulations to haul freight for any customers that request it which would make them a freight railroad. On our trip, we stopped at two locations in Santa Fe and picked up a boxcar at each place. When we got to Lamy, the cars were set out on an interchange track to be picked up by the BNSF. But I can't imagine that they make enough money off of those few cars to stay in business so that would make them a passenger railroad that hauls freight.

I stopped at the post office on the way into Santa Fe and almost missed the train because of lack of parking. Get there early if you don't want to deal with that problem. As the train trundles out of town, it passes diagonally through the intersection of Cerrillos Road and Saint Frances Drive, two of the busiest streets in town. Boy that brings everything to a halt. Soon you pass under I-25 and are in the country side. You then pass through a small community called Eldorado at Santa Fe.

This is a curious place. All the road's I saw were unpaved. Almost none of the homes had any kind of yard with the native flora growing right up to the outer walls of the houses. Sounds like kind of a depressed area, right. But many of the homes were huge sprawling single level houses set on giant lots. Although most were made in the adobe or Pueblo style, I suspect many were simulated not real adobe. Perhaps I will find out the story of these houses someday.

In Lamy, there is a caterer who operates a dining car and an outdoor service area with much the same food. With a full train, there is not time to seat everyone in the dining car so most eat at the outdoor venue. I snuck into the dining car because I wanted to see the car and had a grilled turkey meatloaf sandwich, a first for me.

I enjoyed the trip. It's pretty relaxing with nothing spectacular in the way of scenery although there are some nice long vistas in several places. The 1920's era cars have been nicely restored. They have a more modern dome car but I didn't get to see what it looked like. There is also a flatcar with sides added on for a better view. It's certainly something you would want to do if you were already in Santa Fe.