Denver & Rio Grande Engine 168 Fired and Steaming Up For a Big 2020 Celebration

For the first time since most of us were born, narrow gauge Denver & Rio Grande steam engine 168 turned her wheels under steam. Trains Magazine reports,

On Friday night, 3-foot gauge Denver & Rio Grande 4-6-0 No. 168 ran for the first time in 70 years, following an extensive restoration at the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad. Friday’s test run consisted of a brief trip around the Antonito yard. C&TS Assistant General Manager Stathi Pappas says the 136-year-old Baldwin locomotive was being fired up again on Monday for another test. 

“The test went great,” Pappas says of the locomotive’s first run since 1938.

Engine 168 in Black Canyon
 of the Gunnison in 1904

The engine will be matched with purpose-built replica passenger cars to roll behind her in what will likely be a very memorable 50 year-anniversary celebration of the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad. In 1970, the states of Colorado and New Mexico teamed together to purchase the narrow gauge segment of the San Juan Extension that runs between Antonito Colorado and Chama New Mexico when it appeared certain that the Denver & Rio Grande Western railroad was abandoning the line. Since then, a six-member commission led by both states has supervised the investment in the C&TS, with an emphasis in history and preservation, something with which the restoration of engine 168 falls right in line. Having an active volunteer organization dedicated to assisting that mission with hands and feet, hearts and minds doesn't hurt, either.

Engine 168 is an important historic artifact to Colorado and to railroading. While it's a steam engine, something that last roamed the rails en masse 70 years ago, it's also narrow gauge, designed to run on rails 3 feet apart, rather than the standard 4 feet 8½ inches apart. There are dozens of these narrow gauge engines in the state of Colorado already, and they're all worthy of preservation. What makes 168 so unique is that it is one of two surviving class T-12 locomotives built in 1883 for General William Palmer's original vision of the D&RG connecting Denver with El Paso and Mexico City.

168 Awaiting President Taft in Montrose, 1909

The Rio Grande never reached further south than Santa Fe, but the engine would go on to haul passengers throughout the state and beyond. One of its more important roles was to carry then-President William Taft to the opening of the Gunnison Tunnel, a record-length water supply tunnel that turned the land around Montrose into a veritable garden beginning in 1909.

As railroads around the state prepare to rest or at least scale back activities for the winter, it's worth contemplating how many engines are now in steam that were dry and static several years ago. Certainly, such a recounting is worth its own post! ⚒

Denver & Rio Grande Steam Engine 168 Moves To New LIfe In Antonito

Shaking off over 75 years of sitting cold and drained in a park, Denver & Rio Grande steam engine 168 left Colorado Springs this week on a flatbed trailer for Antonito to be refurbished by the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic for use on the 63 mile narrow gauge, heritage railroad. As announced back in April, the C&TS will lease the class T-12 locomotive for 45 years from the City of Colorado Springs, the owner, after receiving the locomotive from the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad in 1929. This was twenty years after the passing of Gen. William J. Palmer, founder of both the D&RG in 1870 and Colorado Springs in 1871. No official word yet on when work will commence in Antonito.

More Regarding the Move

• Pictures of the move - Nathan Holmes' DRGW.net
• Hundreds Turn Out... Colorado Springs Gazette
• Engine 168 Making Way Back... Pueblo Chieftain
• Iconic Locomotive To Get New Life... KRDO
• Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Plans For 168

Special Request: Please take time to visit one or more of the links above, comment there, and share your interest with others on Twitter, Facebook, & Pintrest and other social media. Supporting this effort--even just "generating buzz" about it--is important for this and future projects to succeed!◊

Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Announces Lease To Fully Restore T-12 Engine 168

Colorado Springs City Council has approved a lease of D&RG 168 by the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad for the purpose of full restoration to steam. It was initially proposed to the city in October and surprisingly--Nathan Holmes of DRGW.net called it "a rare moment of sanity and agreement"--they accepted. The Cumbres & Toltec Scenic's eventual success in restoring D&RGW 463, one of two surviving Mudhens, probably influenced the council's decision.

Rio Grande 168 rests placidly under a thin blanket of snow on April 10, 2004.
Photo by Steve Walden*

The 168 is one of two surviving T-12 class narrow gauge ten-wheelers purchased by the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad in 1883 by Baldwin Locomotive Works in Philadelphia. The Rio Grande, having spent the previous two years in a frenzy of expansion needed a number of new narrow gauge locomotives to service the new lines. The other surviving engine, 169, rests in Alamosa, 30 miles north of the eastern terminus of the C&TS at Antonito.

Only a year after her presentation on Aug 27, 1939 (DPL)

The city will lease the locomotive to the railroad for 3 consecutive 15 year terms. This is inclusive of the time to take it apart and fully restore all parts that have corroded or wasted in the 77 years since it last saw service. The locomotive last saw a full cosmetic restoration completed in 1984 and has received periodic upkeep. As it has occupied the same location for nearly 8 decades, the locomotive's static display predates most buildings downtown.

June 13, 1943 Same engine and city but can you spot
all that's changed in less than 4 years?
Both photos: Otto Perry (courtesy DPL)

Most of the buildings, that is, with the exception of the Colorado Springs D&RG Depot, located across the street from Antlers Park. The close proximity of two of the oldest artifacts of Colorado's most extensive railroad has often resulted in their pairing in presentation in promotional and tourism material. The depot had for years served as a restaurant until a change of ownership and subsequent mismanagement forced it to close in 2011.

It is one of the ideas that for many years I had dreamed might one day come about. Could the city that was founded by Gen. Palmer only a year after his "baby road" one day find a way to return to steaming operation a locomotive that had such a history and connection to the city? I once thought it impossible, considering the difficulties of other organizations and other cities. Now, ...who knows what's next?◊

* On a personal note, this was one of my first digital photographs since 1997.

Narrow Gauge Rio Grande Mikado 491 Sees Blue Skies After A Pivotal Year

Rio Grande 491 rides the turntable Friday afternoon under a beautiful blue sky. With restoration still to be done, she nonetheless looks like she's ready for work. Heading for the Monarch branch, perhaps?
Photo: John Hill, contributing photographer for Colorado Railroads

Rio Grande narrow gauge steam locomotive 491, Colorado's most recently restored steamer is part of the vaunted K-37 class. They were perhaps the largest, heaviest, strongest class of narrow gauge Mikados ever to work a narrow gauge railroad, with the possible exception of a couple of articulateds on the Uintah.

Starting life in 1902 as a Baldwin-built standard gauge locomotive for the Rio Grande numbered 1026, she was converted along with 5 other classmates to 3-foot narrow gauge in 1928. Additionally, Burnham shop machinists took her from a 2-8-0 wheel arrangement (Consolidation) to a 2-8-2 wheel arrangement, known as Mikado. The innovators in Denver's Burnham shops had no way of knowing that their work would long outlast the thundering, Big Boy-like articulated engines of the 2-8-8-2 L-131 class that saw work in the very same shops!

Yet, some parts of 491 make her twice as unique an engine. Colorado Railroad Museum intern Benjamin Fearn explains in the museum's Iron Horse News, the firebox of 491 has thermic siphons installed inside. Such devices worked to take more of the energy from the combustion in the fire and pass it into the water of the boiler. As it does, convection draws more water into the siphon to pick up more energy. Conservation and efficiency were useful concepts at Burnham, just like most steam shops of their day.

So, if everything goes right, 491 could be 13 years away--as a narrow gauge engine--in what could be a career not measured in years, but in centuries. As my favorite engine at the museum, I can't wait to see the completed work!

The story of the restoration of 491 is available in the Iron Horse News and in the museum's Roundhouse News blog.◊

Special thanks to John Hill for the timely photograph!

Rio Grande 491 Operational! Celebrates with Tour of the Museum Loop

Ahem. After a few friends have poked me in the ribs, asking if I indeed knew this was happening at the Colorado Railroad Museum (I did, but family matters kept me away). I'm a little too excited, but I will keep my detached decorum. I will not geek out over a certain bit of news that just begs to be shouted from the summit of Mt. Elbert.

Instead... I will let the video speak for itself.

Just listen to that whistle halfway through. Oh, baby!◊

D&RGW 491 at No Agua tank on the museum grounds this summer
Photo: Colorado Railroad Museum

Steam Generator Cars Legacy Lives On In UP Yellow

Union Pacific's EMD E9 #949 idles at Denver's North Yard with the Howard Fogg, a steam generator car in from Cheyenne for repair to the car's wheels. Photo: John Hill, contributing photographer

Contributing photographer John Hill captured Union Pacific's historic EMD E9  in Denver with car #209, known as the Howard Fogg. It is the last boiler car for the UP. The car is comparable to former Alco PB #6002 that the Rio Grande renumbered 253 when they converted it to generate steam for passenger trains like the California Zephyr, the Rio Grande Zephyr and the Ski Train. Nathan Holmes of DRGW.net explains the reason behind steam generator cars. In practice, the former diesel engines like the Alco were easier to convert because they were already built to MU (multiple unit) control standards. Therefore, they ran between the engines instead of behind them like the Union Pacific. The Howard Fogg must ride behind the engine lashup and not within it.

About Howard Fogg, the Painter

Named for the renowned railroad painter in 1996 after he passed away on October 1st of that year. Fogg issued numerous paintings of locomotives at the end of steam and the heyday of cowl-bodied diesels. This was during a period when American railroading was arguably the most colorful and diverse.

Examples of Fogg's paintings can be found illustrating many published works, including some editions of the definitive Rio Grande book, Rebel of the Rockies by Robert Athearn, as well as his own books. His works come on calendars, playing cards, porcelain platters and even things you can hang on your wall with frames. Most recently, Richard and Janet Fogg have published Fogg In the Cockpit, a book and a blog about Richard's father. Colorado railroads and narrow gauge were a favorite theme among Fogg's many paintings.

Legacy of Steam Power Survives To See a Big Boy

Given today's wireless and electronic gadgetry, it is a bit ironic that the power cars are indispensable for present passenger special operations using equipment made to run when steam was not just an option, it was the only way to power the cars in your train. Eventually, however, the standard for car power changed when Amtrak took new Amfleet and Superliner cars that relied on HEP, or Head End Power, based on the ready supply of electricity from today's diesel-electrics. Yet nothing seemed capable of killing off the last vestige of steam from the surviving vintage passenger cars like those of Union Pacific.

Inconspicuous to a fault, the Howard Fogg blends in with the passenger consist, ahead of the first dome and behind tool car Art Lockman and #6936, this time speeding through La Salle, Colorado, on its northbound jaunt to Cheyenne Frontier Days.
Photo: John Hill

Finally, in 2000, the car was upgraded to include HEP. The boiler still supplies the steam heat as needed for consist, but HEP provides the power for the high voltage needs on the train. Cars can be electric or steam, but everything from tools and bench work to AC, cash registers, and reading lights depend on the Howard Fogg. Union Pacific needs the Howard Fogg as a support car for the move of Big Boy 4014 from California to Wyoming, presently underway, which Kevin Morgan has confirmed is in Las Vegas, NV on April 30th.◊

Reader Poll On The Colorado Railroad Museum

The results are in with the reader poll. This was one of the longest running polls in CR history, running 200 days or 6 months, 2 weeks, 3 days (half a year, half a month and half a week!). The question was: If you had $5 Million to spend on the Colorado Railroad Museum, which options would you pick? While voters could pick more than one, they did weigh in with a majority. Here are the options ranked by total votes.

Rank	Option	Votes
1	Build a train shed, covered pavilion or super roundhouse to shelter a significant percentage of the museum's collection from the ravages of weather and exposure, preserving your collection and saving money in the long term.	57 (53%)
2	Purchase additional land to expand the museum grounds (GP30, SD40T-2 and others await restoration and display).	49 (46%)
3	Purchase right of way and build a spur to connect the BNSF Coors branch directly with the museum grounds.	39 (36%)
4	Restore a long tenured locomotive to life, such as D&RG 583, D&RGW 491, CB&Q 5629 or D&RGW 318	27 (25%)
5	Finance several main line steam excursions throughout the state to help generate awareness for the museum by showcasing some of its rail-worthy collection and hosting key donors on board.	13 (12%)
6	Fund the construction of a small satellite campus of the museum in Colorado Springs, Pueblo, Montrose, Grand Junction or another city	8 (7%)

Thank you to everyone who voted!◊

POTD: Once and Future Glory

Our last POTD this week is from ...drum roll plea--nah, nevermind. It's Chris May again. But the theme has been a new way to look a things. Chris is good at making you look at things in a new way. He's not content to merely log photos as a scribe of the way things are; he's looking for ways to challenge himself creatively. That's what makes me a fan of his work.

The rusting cab of Denver & Rio Grande Western GP30 engine 3011 sits near the museum's
restoration roundhouse awaiting the day when she will be brought back to life again.
Photo: Christopher May

For today's photo, we return to the Colorado Railroad Museum on a different day, November 11, 2006. There is no title for it, but for me it speaks to the "once and future glory" that I believe in. Personal disclosure ahead, which may make you uncomfortable. You can skip to the next paragraph if you choose. A year to the day before Chris made this photograph, I was standing in front of over 1,000 people telling them about my young son's friendship with a six year-old girl, sharing the fun little things kids of that age do as a way of comforting them because that beautiful, vibrant and imaginative girl had passed away due to a freak medical condition that no one could have anticipated or avoided. She died 8 years ago today. Like the rusted locomotive hulk, her body was inanimate, decaying and breaking down even as we mourned that day. 

EMD GP30 illustration by Tom Fawell

Engine 3011 was a GP-30, a beautiful, vibrant and strong engine, one of the class that inspired the art of EMD's illustrator Tom Fawell. See how the power flows from it, the angular lines of the locomotive charging forward? That's the once part of the glory. The future part is when we see 3011 perched again on standard gauge rails shining with new paint and number boards looking for all the world like the day in 1961 when it rolled out of the plant. Or maybe, just maybe even hauling a passenger special for the museum. It's a picture of what my faith tells me is real.◊

UP Big Boy Locomotive -- Largest Ever Built -- May Again Roam In Colorado

UP 4014 during her operational days
Photo: Union Pacific

It's official. Union Pacific Railroad announced today that it has re-acquired one of their legendary 4-8-8-4 steam locomotives with the full intention of restoring it to active service. After a lengthy stay in the rumor mill, UP reached an agreement with the Railway and Locomotive Historical Society, Southern California Chapter in Pomona, to transfer ownership of #4014 back to the railroad. Union Pacific plans to relocate No. 4014 to Cheyenne, WY, where their "Heritage Fleet Operations" team will work to restore it to operating condition.

UP donated #4014 to the historical society December 7, 1961, which was the 20th anniversary of Pearl Harbor in 1941, the same year that the first Big Boys began operations. The locomotive arrived January 8, 1962, at its current display location at the Rail Giants Train Museum in Pomona.

"Our steam locomotive program is a source of great pride to Union Pacific employees past and present," said Ed Dickens, senior manager of Union Pacific Heritage Operations. "We are very excited about the opportunity to bring history to life by restoring No. 4014."

What About Denver's Big Boy?

Big Boy 4005, the Big Boy on permanent display at the Forney Transportation Museum in Denver may have been considered for restoration, but given the long duration #4005 spent out under the open sky in the years before the museum moved, she almost certainly would have cost more to restore although it's unclear Union Pacific ever seriously considered the locomotive, one of several surviving Big Boys around the country.

More

• about Big Boys.
• about #4014 (new UP data)

Opinion 

Union Pacific 4014 in Pomona CA in 2005
Photo: Morven, Wikimedia Commons

It remains to be seen whether Union Pacific has a use for 3 steam engines in a special program. Certainly, the steam program is Union Pacific's prime goodwill ambassador, crushing other companies' PR machines under a million pounds of live steam. On the other hand, could it be setting us up for a retirement of #3985, the Challenger that UP restored back in 1981. Such wouldn't be likely right away, but odds would favor its early retirement if someone finds the costs of running or repairs to be unjustified. Personally, I'm excited at the possibility of finally seeing a Big Boy in motion. I only wonder what the world's largest steam locomotive is truly going to cost.◊

New Reader Poll: How To Improve the Colorado Railroad Museum?

Near the top of the other column on www.corailroads.com, there's a new reader poll with a few ideas about the Colorado Railroad Museum and, in terms of mega-projects, I ask you, "What could possibly improve the place?" Some of these ideas are a little "out there" and some are practical. Cast your vote for two or three you like. Keep watching, as the poll will go for more than 6 months. 

Have I left out anything? Comment in with your ideas. If the right eyes are watching, who knows what could happen? Besides, I really want to hear about your ideas on this.

For ideas and thoughts, try looking through this roster-like photo album on rrpicturearchives.net.◊

Force Of Nature: CDOT Films Georgetown, Silver Plume and The Far-famed Loop

When I was a teen, climbing 14ers was a scary but fun summer pastime. By scary, I mean that I can't recall an ascent where my life wasn't threatened in some way. On my first attempted ascent of Grays Peak, I can remember how my dad had told me that Grays was one of the easiest climbs within a few hours of Denver. A Climbing Guide to Colorado's Fourteeners by Lampert & Borneman said so. I remembered that while jammed inside the cleft of a large rock, 50 feet off the trail, wrapped in a heat reflective blanket, wondering if I'd see my dad again.

What does that have to do with the film below titled Force of Nature? Everything. On my way to our climb, the last towns I passed through were Georgetown and Silver Plume. G-town was where they'd likely bring our bodies, I reasoned. I breathed out curses on guidebook writers and, in the very next breath, prayed that lightning avoided men on the exposed sides of mountains and boys stuffed into rocks beneath them with equal disdain. It was only a couple of years after they had rebuilt the Loop in the valleys below my misadventure. Colorado's Department of Highways, a predecessor of CDOT, was consistently being dealt black eyes for it's handling of rock falls onto its roads. Rock slide mitigation is an inexact science with very real consequences for failure.

In 2012, rock slide mitigation is getting (significantly) better. Walter Borneman survived my curses to pen a 20th anniversary edition of the guide and appear in the film below. My dad came down off the mountain having tasted electricity and felt lightning in his fingers, surviving only to drag me up many more (with alarmingly variable results), and then safely retire last year, giving his last Jeep to my brother. You might even catch his own guide book out there. It probably doesn't mention his stuffing his son in a crevice under a rock ...but it should. After all, it taught his son to pray.



Few today seriously understand how unwilling highway designers were to give up their precious right of way to a railroad that no longer existed! This film is just a small token of appreciation for James Grafton Rogers, a preservationist, a lawyer, and a veteran on this Veterans Day 2012.

And Walt, sorry. Your advice was good. No hard feelings!◊

Rio Grande 463 Scheduled to Return In 2012

The Monte Vista Journal did an article that serves as an update on Mudhen 463, under restoration in the San Luis Valley. The Friends of the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic have set March 31, 2012 as the completion date, despite the restoration requiring more work than anticipated, resulting in a $240,000 shortfall. Hopefully, next season sees the smallest and oldest of the surviving 2-8-2 Mikados back on the rails!

Mudhen 463 Frame Mated To Boiler In Mammoth Crane Event

Some great news has come out of Monte Vista this month! Denver & Rio Grande Western steam engine 463 has taken a major step in her return to steam. The frame and boiler were finally mated back together at last. Everything appears to be on schedule for the K-27 class Mudhen to return to steam at the beginning of the 2012 Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad summer season.

Highball! First Run of Passengers Over Lobato Trestle From Chama To Osier

It is all over the narrow gauge world out there this morning that Lobato Trestle on the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic is finally back in service! While there were photos and videos of the trestle with the C&TS diesel switcher and a MOW car with ballast for the abutments, there was no official word when the trestle will be ready for daily service with the two regular trains ...until suddenly yesterday morning when a train loaded up and quietly left Chama, full of passengers.

DUSPA To Resume Walking Tours This Summer

From the semi-autonomous Denver Union Station Project Authority's newsletter for May 2011,

The Denver Union Station Project Authority (DUSPA) once again will be conducting free walking tours of the Denver Union Station redevelopment site this summer. The tours will be held at 4:30 p.m., starting on Thursday, May 19, 2011, and continuing on the first and third Thursdays of the month through September. The one-hour tour will depart from the main entrance of the historic station on Wynkoop Street.

Friends Bring $121K Check For Lobato Trestle

The Friends of the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad is a volunteer support organization that works to preserve the rolling stock and most of the equipment of the Cumbres & Toltec. Last year on June 24th, the trestle at Lobato burned in a spectacular nighttime blaze. No one was injured, and the investigators have ruled out arson. Even while the embers were cooling , the Friends have taken on the work of soliciting donations for the rebuild, hopefully in time to restore service from Chama this coming season, which starts May 28th.

Video of Steve Lee's Presentation In Hugo

Have you ever wondered what it takes to field a modern day, main line steam program? Steve Lee, recently retired, is the most experienced at the complexities of Union Pacific's Steam Program. His commentary and photos from his 22 years as head of the program were given as part of the meeting Sunday for the Hugo Roundhouse preservation group.

New Mexico Antes Up For Lobato Repairs, Could Complete By Opening Day 2011

The Lobato Trestle on the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad, which burned in a fire in late June, could possibly be back in service by next season's opening day! Long time New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson directed the state's Department of Transportation to direct $1.2 Million in federal funds toward the trestle reconstruction.

Lobato Trestle Op-Ed in ABQ Journal

Bill Hume, board member of the C&TS Railroad Management Company wrote an Op-Ed piece for the Albuquerque Journal regarding the Lobato Trestle rebuild project. In it, he covers the history of the actions taken since the fire in June.  Of note:

Mudhen 463 Still Under Restoration

It's been a while since we've checked on Engine 463. In fact, we've not seen much on 463 since the Friends of the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad won the grant to begin work on restoration. Now, according to the Friends, we hear that restoration continues on D&RGW Locomotive 463, also known as Gene Autry's Mudhen. It is one of two surviving K-27 class locomotives originally 15 strong in the D&RGW roster, numbered 450 to 464.