After 20 years, Friends of the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad has a new executive director.
Rick Marsden replaced Tim Tennant, who was with the organization for 20 years.
As executive director, his goal is to increase the visibility of the Friends so that the public better understands what they do.
“If it’s a steam locomotive, you got my interest,” Marsden said in a recent telephone interview. “It kind of wraps it all into one big beautiful bowtie.”
The Friends is a nonprofit organization with more than 1,900 members who volunteer in restoration, preservation and other special projects on the 64-mile railroad that runs between Chama, N.M. and Antonito, Colo.
Marsden comes from a family that is part of East Coast railroad history.
His great-grandfather was the general manager and part owner of the Emmitsburg Railroad Company — a standard gauge short feeder line railroad based in Maryland that closed in 1940.
As a boy, he could be found in the engine sheds, playing in the parts bins and looking at old archival photographs and records.
“If it was dirty or greasy or interesting, you had me,” he said.
He inherited several relics from the company and still uses an old Pullman parlor chair at his desk. These experiences ignited what became a lifelong passion.
“Trains are like a magic portal key to another time, a different dimension in today’s world,” Marsden said. “It’s how American got around before the Boeing 747 aircraft. That’s what built America. That’s what built New Mexico: the trains.”
The Friends
The Cumbres and Toltec is jointly owned by the states of New Mexico and Colorado, and is partially funded by state grants and appropriations, as well as ticket sales. In previous years, it has focused on enhancing the guest experience and offering more upscale ride options to drive revenue.
Marsden’s background lends itself to his goals as the Friends’ executive director.
According to his biography, he previously worked in commercial finance and has a degree in business administration, finance and marketing.
He first rode the Cumbres and Toltec as a child, when visiting family in Colorado during a driving tour of the American Southwest. He has since ridden all of its trains from Antonito and Chama many times, as well as working on its photo archive and on special excursion trains.
“It is never the same,” Marsden said. “Mountain and sky determine what you see. The mountains, the sky, the wind, the rain.”
In addition to his work with the Cumbres and Toltec, he is also a volunteer with the nonprofit New Mexico Steam Locomotive and Railroad Historical Society in Albuquerque. There, he helped with the restoration of Locomotive #2926 — the only operating steam locomotive of its kind. With the historical society, he did a little bit of everything, from working on train boilers, wheels, axles and the driving cab, to sheet metal work.
Marsden has ridden many trains across the country, including the nearby Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad in Colorado; the Verde Canyon Railroad in Arizona and the Cass Scenic Railroad in West Virginia.
Each one of them is different, he said.
His favorite part of the Cumbres and Toltec is riding in the high altitude above the tree line of the Cumbres Pass and how the railroad zig-zags through the mountains across the borders between the two states.
“But this is its own special different,” Marsden said. “It’s really what makes it ‘wow.’ ”