My wife and I spent most of last week staying in a cabin between Cloudcroft and Timberon, NM. We did 25 miles of hiking in 4 1/2 days (including 4500' of elevation gain on the hikes), explored the local history, ate some good local food, etc. It turns out that the area was settled by the Alamogordo and Sacramento Mountain Railroad. Who woulda thunk it...a small mountain town at 8600' above sea level being built by a railroad! Why? Timber. The A&SM was a subsidiary of the El Paso and Northeastern. The EP & NE needed ties to expand the trackage, and there isn't an abundance of timber around El Paso, TX. By the way, no one of the publicity pieces for the railroad there's a great shot of an SP AC-9 thundering down the track near El Paso. Not Frisco, but those were beautiful locomotives. As a result, they built a steep, twisty railroad up the mountains from Alamogordo, NM, for logging. Most of the locomotives were shays and heislers due to the grades, but there were a few 4-6-0's, etc. There were something like 60 timber trestles to facilitate crossing all of the small canyons and valleys. Many of the forest service roads were originally railroad right of ways that were converted to roads when the railroad ceased to operate in 1947. The Mexican Canyon Trestle has been restored and was well worth the 2.5 mile round trip hike to see it. The S Trestle fell several years ago, but the remains are still there. Several photos are attached of railroad roadbed, the trestles, etc.
