[Attachment(s) from
runextra@gmail.com [CBQ] included below]
I've thought this pic is Echeta? It is a Barringer but I don't know his photo number. I'd have to drive the 80 miles out there to check the hills and see if they match but from my memory it sure looks close.
As for the steam loco having shoved an eastbound to Arvada, that is not very likely. No reason for that. I've ran A LOT of helpers here and I've never done that. Sheridan helpers shove east up to Ulm then most trains go it alone from there to Gillette. In steam
days there was a wye at Ulm and it can still very faintly be seen today. In diesel days we usually stayed on the rear of the train we helped to Ulm down the hill to Clearmont to obtain train orders to return to Sheridan or to get on a westbound that needed
help up to Ulm and up the backside of Sheridan Hill. In diesel days we would often run light helpers to Lariat to get on the rear of a westbound there to shove it up out of Arvada and up Ulm and Sheridan Hills (Arvada siding was gone by then. ripped out after
a wreck on the spring switch in 1975 or 1976). My point is that there is no reason for steam engines to help a train to Arvada which is at the bottom of a hill in either direction. I don't doubt that the CBQ ran light helper engines to Arvada to help westbounds
out of there and up the other 2 hills. It DOES make sense that the Q would run light helpers out of Gillette to Echeta to meet and help an eastbound up Felix Hill thru the S curves that were straightened in the late 1970s. But I don' know if the Q had westbound
helper service based at Gillette? Sheridan helpers could've also shoved from Sheridan to Sparta(between Oriva and Gillette) where there was a wye to turn for the long return trip.