Going Up and Over in New Mexico

The front of this post card shows two steam locomotives very close to each other, but not one attached to the other. This is because these engines

are going up Raton Pass on the Santa Fe Railroad line.
Raton Pass is a 2,388 meter high (7,835 ft) mountain pass between New Mexico and Colorado. It stretches from Raton, New Mexico and Trinidad, Colorado. It is northeast of Santa Fe, New Mexico and straight south of Puebl0, Colorado, but not close to either of them; it is approximately 290 km northeast of Santa Fe on the border between the two states. Captain William Becknell discovered the pass while he was surveying for the Santa Fe Trail in 1821. This pass was part of the route between Kansas City and Santa Fe when the pioneers were out to settle the West. Today you can travel on Interstate 25 through the pass.
During the 1800s, the pass was the main route into New Mexico for the Santa Fe Railroad as it's primary route through the mountains. Unfortunately, the route over the pass included gradients of up to 3.5%. That is why you see two engines on the front of this post card. There was always a locomotive around to help the scheduled trains get up and over the pass. Finally having enough of this, the Santa Fe began work on the "Belen Cutoff" in October of 1902. It's completion in 1908 meant that the trains no longer had to negotiate the steep grades of the Raton Pass. They could glide (in comparison) over a maximum grade of 1.25%. Having said that, Amtrak still used the pass twice a day for its passenger service.

The post card comes from early in the Divided Back Era (March 31, 1907 - 1915); it was mailed on April 20, 1907. Williamson-Haffner Company was a publisher of lithographic souvenir books and view-cards of the American West. While their views were largely based on photographic reproduction, many scenes were artist drawn. They also produced comic postcards. They were based in Denver, Colorado and only existed from 1905 to 1910. The author of this post card was lucky to find one made by this publisher.