Company profile

The Chimera Gorge Western is a small railroad company that serves the Southwest of Colorado. Among it's customers are several mines and the Utex Rubber Company. The CGW also handles some bridge traffic; it interchanges with the Mesa Verde, Rimrock & Tidewater RR at Mesa Verde and with the ATSF at Farmington, NM.

On our roster you'll find mostly secondhand diesels and a few steam engines of 1940/50s vintage. Many of them have been fitted with modern Japanese engines and they are expected to last for many years to come. A few years ago we started a program to upgrade the onboard electronics to dcc. To date, only five locomotives have received the new controls. Two of those feature additional audio controls and since these are very popular with our crews, the focus of the program has been changed: all future conversions are to include audio control. This means a huge cost increase, so the conversion will have to be stretched over many years.

Our car fleet is rather small and also relies heavily on second hand cars. Some cars have not been repainted at all, others have just had their reporting marks blocked out. All have been fitted with automatic couplers from the Kadee Company.

[To be continued]

 

Profile