I received a Facebook post regarding railway equipment in
Europe constructed in 1860. The
locomotive and carriages, their version of our Pullman Palace passenger cars,
were ornate and opulent looking much as I would expect a Las Vegas bordello to appear. Plush railroad equipment in America ranged
from extravagant to relatively pragmatic but it never quite seemed to reach the
gaudiness of some of their European counterparts.
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| NYCR Dreyfuss Super Hudson J3a |
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| NYCR Super Hudson J3a |
Through time great American trains such as the New York
Central Twentieth Century Limited became sophisticated works of mechanical
art. The epitome was clearly the 1938
Hudson J3a Super Hudson as streamlined by Dreyfuss. Then it all ended.
As railroads rapidly replaced steam with diesel the
remarkable steam locomotives and the beautiful consists they pulled were
relegated to the rip track and then to the cutting torch. The manager of the New York Central ordered
all steam locomotives to be destroyed and the same philosophy held true on most
other railroads including the Denver and Rio Grande Western. Short of a few photographs, the evidence of
an entire era was lost in the carnage. Of
the D&RGW one shard remains slowly losing context in the midst of a
rapidly expanding tourist mecca in the Colorado Rockies and there is another.
In an isolated and lonely area of Colorado and New Mexico a
remnant of the steam era struggled on far beyond its time. In the end it too lost the struggle and was
finally abandoned by the railroad. For
two years the track rusted and the yards were empty then, the States of
Colorado and New Mexico purchased 64 miles of track and with it all the
structures and equipment for just over $500,000. Late in the year of purchase
and with the help of volunteers a new depot was built and the equipment was
moved into storage the next spring, nearly 50 years ago, the rail line re-born
as the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad.
Today it operates as a living museum, a National Historic Landmark, and
this brings us to our story.
From 1831 to its demise in 1972 Baldwin Locomotive Works of
Eddystone, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia, erected over 70,000 locomotives which were
overwhelmingly steam driven. In 1883 the
company received an order for ten narrow gauge passenger locomotives with a
tractive force of 12,000 pounds. At
approximately 60,000 pounds (30 tons) even in that early era, these were very
light weight locomotives. The relatively
low tractive force combined with 46” driving wheels, the largest of any
D&RG narrow gauge locomotive, made it the fastest locomotive on the narrow
gauge railroad
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| 46" drivers - D&RG 168 |
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| 168 Transports a President - 1909 |
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| 168 at Speed - 1904 |
Other than photographs little is known of 168’s early
history. We know it transported
President William Howard Taft on a journey through Colorado in 1909 and we also
have pictures of it from 1904 in passenger service on the Black Canyon Branch through
the now inundated Black Canyon of the Gunnison River. We also have a side-handed reference to
locomotive 68 being involved in an April 4, 1889 collision at MP 311.30, Tunnel
#1 “Mud Tunnel”, on the San Juan Extension.
There is no history of a number 68 on the D&RG the few locomotives
carrying two digit numbers were re-numbered with a one being added to the
number set. Re-numbering was routine on the
D&RG thus, there is solid reason to believe the locomotive referred to was actually
168.
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| 168 - Static Display in Antler's Park |
In 1938 the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad donated 168 to the City of Colorado Springs to be placed on display on an open platform in Antler's Park. The 168, a a direct link to an era of steam, was left to erode away in the forgotten corner of a park as are so many other relics of the great era of steam. Little better is the fate on many “tourist” railroads in which the “operating”
steam locomotives actually only put out smoke and whistle whilst the actual
work is done by a following diesel locomotive.
In effect the steam engine is a “zombie” in place for show purposes
only.
In the case of 168 the
situation was far worse. The fact that
even the shell survived from nearly 80 years in the open is directly
attributable to the high dry climate of Colorado Springs and occasional
maintenance to cosmetically manage rust spots. The
thought of its ever raising steam again, much less working the grade to
Cumbres, was simply outlandish.
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| The last ride for 168 |
So it was on August 4, 2015, the forgotten little
locomotive, now 132 years old, was removed from its pedestal in a corner
of Antler’s Park and loaded on a flatbed truck for a final trip; sixteen hours
later it arrived in Antonito, Colorado and was remounted on the rails where the
echoes of steam locomotives beginning the daily climb up the long grade to
Cumbres may be still be heard. If it
were a living thing the 168 could hear and sense the slow breath of living
steam locomotives at rest and feel the vibration in the rails before each day’s
journey west.
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| Antonito - Home for new life |
168 will be lovingly restored by the Cumbres and Toltec and
with the help of the Friends so will several historic passenger cars. She will not be a “Roundhouse Queen”; no, she
is destined to work again on the climb to the high pass at Cumbres and on down
the “dreadful drop” into Chama. She will
live again and so will her special consist, the San Juan Express. If I am fortunate, I will be there that on
that day.
