Any Narrow Guage Train buffs here??

jimgalli · Apr 30, 2009

Click on the teaser to open a page of photos of 489 getting re-flued at the shops in Chama New Mexico. These were done with the $65 Autocord. OK admittedly a snobbish step up from the Ciro-Flex, but hey I had to travel for these.

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Laurent · Apr 30, 2009

I like these, I love workshops in general and steam trains in particular. Thanks for sharing !

The Autocord seems quite a good choice for photographing a beauty like this one.

Marco B · Apr 30, 2009

Thanks, I love (steam-)locomotives! Nice to see the refurbishing.

Photo Engineer · Apr 30, 2009

Looks like a Shay from the side here. I built one from a kit once long ago. They sure look busy on the road. My uncle's father was an engineer for the P&LE railroad and I used to walk 2 blocks to the Roundhouse to watch them get up steam in the AM or service them. I even got to ride in the cab once, in an 060, but that is another story.

PE

jimgalli · Apr 30, 2009

Laurent said:
I like these, I love workshops in general and steam trains in particular. Thanks for sharing !

The Autocord seems quite a good choice for photographing a beauty like this one.

Thanks! Yes, the Autocord is just big enough to get the job done nicely and small enough that the folks don't throw you out of the workshop.

BTW fwiw these are neg scans. Not sure when I'll have time to print them. So much to photograph, so little time.

DWThomas · Apr 30, 2009

Good stuff! Steam is well represented in my archives from the 19-ought-sixties.

Thanks for posting it.

DaveT

Ektagraphic · Apr 30, 2009

I love Narrow Gauge! I am luck to live somewhat close to a couple of museums. I don't have any scanned work to share....

EdColorado · Apr 30, 2009

#489 is a K-36 and is back on the rails. They finished the restoration in 2008. I love trains, narrow gauge in particular, and have ridden on the Cumbres & Toltec. Its a great ride if your into such things. Thanks for posting the pictures Jim!

Uhner · Apr 30, 2009

Good stuff

Makes me want to go to Maramures and enjoy the few narrow gauge engines they still use in the logging industry (and drink some Horinca of course)..

Jim Edmond · Apr 30, 2009

Thanks, Jim - very nice shots! The Cumbres & Toltec is a very nice ride, especially in the fall. It's not as spectacular as the Durango & Silverton (both were part of the same D&RG route), but covers varied and interesting terrain.

coriana6jp · Apr 30, 2009

Photo Engineer said:
Looks like a Shay from the side here. I built one from a kit once long ago. They sure look busy on the road. My uncle's father was an engineer for the P&LE railroad and I used to walk 2 blocks to the Roundhouse to watch them get up steam in the AM or service them. I even got to ride in the cab once, in an 060, but that is another story.

PE

Its definately not a Shay, you can tell by the location of the pistons. By the looks of it, is probably a 2-8-2 (Mikado). The Rio Grande had lots of narrow gauge 2-8-2s, and if I remember correctly, the Chama line never used Shays.

Great Picture, Jim!!

Gary

Photo Engineer · Apr 30, 2009

Gary;

I'll believe that, but I could see no valve gear and the wheels that could be seen looked smaller. Oh well, maybe it is a Yahs.

PE

Someonenameddavid · Apr 30, 2009

Shays would seldom be that big, because they were logging engines used on lightly laid track with sharp radii. The Baldwin built k36s were more powerful than most British mainline freight locomotives but travelled on 3 foot gauge track as opposed to 4foot 8.5 inches standard gauge.

When you travel on the Cumbres and Toltec, start from Chama because you have those beasts double-heading from the beginning, so you have "major clag" (a British Trainspotting term for lots and lots of steam and smoke and noise). Great pictures...

David

jimgalli · Apr 30, 2009

Somebody may well correct me because there are rivet counters about, but these engines were affectionately called "mud hens" because they were originally intended for 'standard guage' and later converted to 'narrow guage' or 3 foot guage. That means the wheels moved closer together but in the case of the connecting rods and valve gear it stayed put and actually hung over the tracks. It made them rather odd and squatty looking compared to more ordinarily proportioned engines of 100 years ago.

Don12x20 · May 1, 2009

coriana6jp said:
Its definately not a Shay, you can tell by the location of the pistons. By the looks of it, is probably a 2-8-2 (Mikado). The Rio Grande had lots of narrow gauge 2-8-2s, and if I remember correctly, the Chama line never used Shays.

Great Picture, Jim!!

Gary

Yes, no Shays on the modern(20th century) D&RGW roster , but early on there were a few. And the nearest Shay along the DRGW NG Right of Way would have been on New Mexico Lumber (see "Logging along the Rio Grande" for pictures)

Don12x20 · May 1, 2009

Sorry, Jim, but the "Mud Hen" name was reserved for the K-27 class. (450-464). 464 survives in Michigan, 463 is on the CTS (formerly owned by Gene Autry after DRGW), and the tender tank of 462 survives on CTS as water car. The rest are gone.

The common locomotives on C&TS and D&S are K-28 class and K-36 class (480-489) and K-37 mikes (490 class) <There are a few consolidations(C class) and ten-wheelers(T class) around Colorado as well as these K (-Mikado )class

Only 3 of the K-28 class (473, 476 and 478 survive in Colorado; the remaining 7 were requisitioned by the US Army during WW2 and served their time on the White Pass and Yukon. After the war they were returned to Seattle and scrapped. K-28 were the usual engines on the fast NG passenger trains from Alamosa to Gunnison, and Alamosa to Durango.

BTW The K-37's were the ones converted from standard guage engines.

Krockmitaine · May 2, 2009

Photo Engineer said:
Looks like a Shay from the side here. I built one from a kit once long ago. They sure look busy on the road. My uncle's father was an engineer for the P&LE railroad and I used to walk 2 blocks to the Roundhouse to watch them get up steam in the AM or service them. I even got to ride in the cab once, in an 060, but that is another story.

PE

Those pictures are timeless and many thanks for the sharing.
As for the 489, it's a Mikado (2-8-2) outside frame; the wheels are inside the frame and the counterbalance (4th picture from top, on the lathe) are outside because of restrictions.

Photo Engineer · May 2, 2009

Yes, I overlooked that due to it being narrow guage. My bad.

PE

DWThomas · May 2, 2009

(Sometimes I forget what I have on line.) There's a shot of 478 in operation in my PBase galleries, taken in June 1965. (Gads, it's tough being part of history! )

Also, as to Shays being light, that's true, but at the Cass RR in West Virginia, they have some pretty awesome Shays - No 5 is 90 tons -- seen here in 1965, but still operating according to their website.

Cass Shay No 5 with a person for scale.

EdColorado · May 2, 2009

Thanks for posting those DW, I like Shays. Somewhere around here I have some shots of one of the Shays formally used on the Georgetown Loop Railroad out here in Colorado, and the favorite of my G scale models is a Shay.

outwest · May 2, 2009

This one on the Georgetown Loop?

Photo Engineer · May 2, 2009

Beautiful!

PE

EdColorado · May 2, 2009

Yep, no longer there unfortunately. Not sure what they run now but nothing is quite a interesting as a Shay...well, perhaps a nice old wood burner of some sort..but I miss the Shays!

jp80874 · May 2, 2009

Current inventory of Shays at Cass.
http://www.cassrailroad.com/locos.html

Their all day or weekend photo tours up the mountain are fantastic fun.

John Powers

JPD · May 3, 2009

Old locomotives are interesting. How about this electric steam loco?

Any Narrow Guage Train buffs here??

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