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Rare ride: Establishing a rail link between LA and Santa Fe
(6 comments; last comment posted May 1, 2006 05:15 am)
Steve Cigolle of Naperville, Ill., foreground, boards the train Saturday in Lamy. Todd Clark and Doug Spinn, two entrepreneurs from Los Angeles, hope to book rail travel from Los Angeles to Santa Fe on what they call the Santa Fe Art Express.
By NATALIE STOREY | The New Mexican
April 30, 2006
Entrepreneurs hope to establish a rail link between Los Angeles and Santa Fe
As the Santa Fe Limited Express chugged by the Lamy train station Saturday afternoon, the passengers -- mostly camera-carrying train enthusiasts -- waved wildly from the back platform.
They had come from Los Angeles aboard two vintage train cars, hooked to Amtrak's Southwest Chief. At Lamy, the cars were switched to a Santa Fe Southern engine so the passengers could finish their journey to Santa Fe.
Normally rail passengers have to disembark at Lamy and buy a ticket on the Santa Fe Southern for the final 18 miles. But a California software entrepreneur helped convince Amtrak to unhook the cars so passengers could travel the whole route without changing trains.
Doug Spinn, owner of Pullman Adventures, and his business partners hope to offer periodic service between Los Angeles and Santa Fe aboard Spinn's Pacific Sands (1950) and the Matis (1927). They are targeting art collectors who want to shop in Santa Fe. Tickets on the Santa Fe Art Express will cost approximately $1,500 each for a weekend trip that takes about 22 hours each way. The route goes through Flagstaff, Ariz., Gallup and Albuquerque. Spinn said the first trip would probably be during Indian Market in August.
The two refurbished cars can hold about thirty people. The Matis, which was once part of a Canadian line, carried the Queen of England when she visited.
The ride is full-service and includes food and a porter, Dick Couden, who makes the beds and cleans up.
"This is just like a cruise, only on land," said Spinn. As he talked, the smell of freshly baked cookies, coming from the small kitchen, wafted through the car.
Saturday's passengers were all people who blog and chat on a Web site called Trainorders.com, run by Todd Clark. The site, which has about 6,000 members, caters to people who love trains.
One of the site's members, a tall man named Bob Nickles, who goes by the name "Engineer Bob" on the site, said the ride from Los Angeles to Santa Fe is an important one for train enthusiasts. Since passenger trains have not come all the way into Santa Fe for some time, the trip is known as "rare miles." It's an enthusiast's goal to collect as many rare miles -- places where passenger trains don't normally travel -- as he or she can.
"You get a lot for your money," Nickles said. "Plus it's all railroad people, and we get along well. We don't complain."
Contact Natalie Storey at 986-3026 or nstorey@sfnewmexican.com.
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