AT&SF Mountainair, NM Depot

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Mr. John Corbett, a newspaper man in Winfield, Kansas heard of the plans the Santa Fe had for building the Belen Cutoff through Abo Pass. He came out in 1901 with his friend Col. E. C. Manning, and they located a town site beside the proposed railroad route at the summit. Noticing the summer breeze from off the nearby mountains, they named the town Mountainair. The first passenger trains operated over the pass in 1907 and the depot was built in 1908. Extra 5625 East highballs by the depot at Mountainair on February 21, 1974. Mountainair is at milepost 855 at an elevation of 6,450 feet.

Fourteen years later from nearly the same spot, train 981 passes on July 27, 1988. The train has engines 5995, 8051, 5967, and 8044. Train 981 handled refrigerated TOFC traffic bound for Chicago and the East Coast. It was scheduled out of Richmond at 11:00PM and out of Belen at 8:15AM the second morning. This train became train 971 on June 9, 1989.

Transcon Index

Train 981 at Abo