Named by Anglization of the Spanish for "El Cuerno Grande" - the rather small peaklet at the west switch and wye at Big Horn, "El Cuerno Grande" - The Big Horn. In the fall, from the beginning, the heaviest tonnage producing season; or in worse than normal snowfall years. BG Big Horn was opened as necessary as a point of communication. Quarters for the operator(s) and equipment were in an outfit (bunk) car spurred out at the west switch of the Big Horn siding. It was never in the Big Horn section house which was located at The Loops and too far away to be used as a point of communication for delivering train orders and messages to trains.
Sublette
Sublette for a few years after construction finished had a depot and was an open office because at that period there was a small community based on logging and lumber production. Besides the railroad structures there was a store, a school and some dwellings. (It was not named for the old Mountain Man, Bill Sublette, but for a family of Sublettes prominent in the San Luis Valley and Los Pinos Creek Valley.) Later, it was opened as a point of communication under same governing conditions as Big Horn.
Osier
Osier was an open station during the era of small engines when there was much need for helper locomotives on westward trains from Los Pinos to Cumbres. Even with the advent of the K-27 class locomotives (452-464), if any situation arose for a somewhat prolonged use of helper engines westward Osier was activated. This because the turntable at Osier was only 50 feet long and would not accomodate the newer engines above and including the K-27's. (Telegraph equipment at Sublette and Osier was kept in place for many years.) Even when the Big Engines made helpers unnecessary, Osier was opened as weather reporting stations often with 2 operators.
Less known is the fact that exigences created by the density of train and light engine movements during some seasons or because of backed up tonnage delayed by snow blockades, open points of communication were sometimes established at Lava, Toltec Section House, Los Pinos, Coxo, Cresco, and Lobato. When opened equipped bunkcars were used.
Train dispatching in the days of telegraph when density was heavy mandated quick OS reports of trains or engines as they passed communicating points.
The Salida-Montrose Line was pulled up before telephones came to it so it was the last piece of the Narrow Gauge (or any other railroad) to never have been other than a telegrapher's domain. The San Juan Line suffered the disgrace of finally having train orders and messages transmitted by telephone, although all telegraph facilities were retained and maintained. All the agent-telegraphers, telegraphers and dispatchers who were still working at the remaining points of communication stuck to the telegraph.
Cumbres Pass
In the winter time at telegraph offices such as on Cumbres Pass, Marshall Pass, or Silverton Branch the operator had difficulty sending (and writing) because of flimsy stations warmed only by a heavy cast-iron barrel heater fueled by coal or wood. It is difficult to imagine what it must have been like in the winter at White Rock telegraph office in the years 1880-81. (Editor's note- White Rock was nothing more than a crude collection of log cabins with dirt roofs and lean-tos). Chief of Construction Weitbrec reported to Palmer March 16, 1881 "The winter of 1880-1881 proved to be even more severe than the previous one.......track was constructed to Chama January 18, 1881." It took tough men to live in such primitive quarters; worst of all, imagine, if you can, what sleeping must have been like when temperatures were sub-zero and the wind was whipping snow back under the lean-to.
Once while still telegraphing I was called to man Cumbres for three weeks. The second or third day a blizzard swooped in that produced a blockade for two weeks. By this time the station was a well built frame construction, but while the worst of the blizzard blew I got only intermittent intervals of sleep due to having to stoke the office stove every couple of hours. I was to report the weather every three hours. So I attempted to have a hot stove heating up around the desk. Once in awhile the Dispatcher called at other times, and Morse sent by freezing fingers is far from readable.