“All this is nice but
we need a real wild-west look, let’s build a square water tank and depot.” Certainly someone uttered those words and in
1971 Gregory Peck got his hands dirty trying to put lipstick on a pig called, “Shoot
Out.” When it was over someone on the
film production crew certainly said, “What the hell, it looked great!”
“Wouldn’t an explosion be great?” Somewhere along the line someone had to utter
those words and so an explosion was set-off.
In return Willie Nelson in 1998 gave us one of the worst western movies
ever made, “Where the Hell's That Gold.” Unfortunately,
a 100 year historic artifact was destroyed in process but, “What the hell, it
looked great!” 
Later on a film crew surveyed the Railroad for and found what
had to be historic ruins, “IT'S PERFECT! A square water tank and the ruins of a depot. We will have young Indi swing from a wire
tied to the remains of that water tank onto the top of a passing Circus Train,
it’ll be GREAT!” So production began in
1998 on “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade”and it included a gaudily painted train
passing by a derelict square water tower with young Indi swinging wildly onto the roof of an overdecorated railroad coach. On looking at the daily
rushes the director must have exclaimed, “What the hell it looked great!” 
In 2013 a film crew was working in the reaches of northern New
Mexico producing “A Million Ways to Die in the West.” On a geographically odd tract of land
ran a railroad track with a tangent bending into a curve, and there a chase scene was filmed. The land was arid and covered with low
growing sage. Strangely, determining
whether the track was going uphill or down was near impossible. Going up the hill appeared to be going down
the hill and going down the hill appeared to be going up. 
Filming
on this unusual piece of land involved a chase on horseback down slightly sloping
land to the track with the horse and rider leaping across in front of an
oncoming locomotive. The other side of the track was land slightly sloping upward. This time nothing was destroyed, nothing was
built and no railroad equipment was painted gaudy colors. This time the historic fabric of the railroad
was protected and the final result certainly, “Looked Great!”
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| Lava Tank - Train Upgrade |
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| Ferguson Trestle |
This strange tract of land is just beyond Ferguson Trestle on
a geological oddity called “Gravity Hill”.
Gravity hill is the beginning of the 300' ascent from the floor of the San
Luis Valley to Lava Tank. It runs up a gentle cleft
between a long sloping plateau on the north and a gentle ridge on the
south. The land is essentially clear of trees
and obstructions yet the horizon is obscured due to the slopes on either
side. The grade is also modest at 1.42%
which is a rise of just over 75’ per mile.
The locomotive works steadily but does not labor. When in motion up the grade your
senses tell you it is downhill but, you know it should be uphill not downhill.
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| RGS Galloping goose on Whiplash Curve |
Beyond Lava Tank the line enters a new life zone and then ascends Whiplash Curve, but that is another story.
What is this paradox? Wikipedia describes it this way:
“A gravity hill, also known as a magnetic hill, mystery hill, mystery spot or gravity road, is a place where the layout of the surrounding land produces an optical illusion, making a slight downhill slope appear to be an uphill slope. Thus, a car left out of gear will appear to be rolling uphill against gravity.
The slope of gravity hills is an optical illusion, although sites are often accompanied by claims that magnetic or even supernatural forces are at work. The most important factor contributing to the illusion is a completely or mostly obstructed horizon: without a horizon, judging the slope of a surface is difficult as a reliable reference is missing. Objects one would normally assume to be more or less perpendicular to the ground (such as trees) may actually be leaning, offsetting the visual reference.
The illusion is similar to the Ames room, in which balls can also appear to roll against gravity.
The opposite phenomenon—an uphill road that appears flat—is known in bicycle racing as a ‘false flat’. “
So, let’s all take a ride downhill – uphill on Gravity Hill whist riding the Cumbres and Toltec.
