Here’s a question just for fun. In your own opinion, which was/is the best looking narrow gauge locomotive to run in Colorado (sorry EBT, SVR, WP&Y ect. We’ll get to you later).
I though this was going to be an easy question for myself until I started thinking about it. The lines on a K-28 are nice with the tall stacks, but so is the K-27. However mudhens have those short tenders. Then how about C&S #9, had to find anything wrong with her but then I like Ridgway spark arresters (on C&S engines, not K-36's) Then again, the DSP&P Masons were Good looking with the big stacks.
How about the Ury and their 2-6-6-2s……great engines but not much to look at (if you disagree Lets hear it). One nice looking engine was the D&RGW 315 in the 1940’s but I think she looked great back when she was a Florence & Cripple Creek engine.
RGS #42 in the 1940’s?… nice, but the RGS’s #74 was easy on the eyes to, no…..wait…..I did say I liked those ridgway stack caps…..so then….that means the 74 was prettier as a C&S engine; I think?
Then, there is the Eureka….hard to beat her. Maybe a T-12 back in the 1920’s? How about D&RGW’s little diesel #50?……NEXT!!!……RGS Goose #4, sure, if you like the bus body; but if you like the older style then it would have to be #7, but then again, did she look better when she had a black paint job…………….........This is not as easy as I thought it was going to be.
Wait……..I GOT IT……of course…… the best looking narrow gauge engine ever to run in Colorado must be Rio Grande Southern’s all time favorite, the 4-6-0 #20. …..Yup, that’s it for me. No other engine was so pleasing to the eye and photogenic, as she was, and is today…….BUT….….now that I think of it….. #20 had an even better looking sister. The RGS’s #25.
NOW, I got it…..It must be #25. All the looks of the 20 but with a bigger head light, straight Hand rail, and a perfect size tender with the flared top (after 25 was scraped, this same tender went behind #20 and made her look better as well). Number 25…in my opinion, Beautiful.
But, then again…………………………………………..
When you work a 12 hour grave yard shift waiting for a phone call from EMS, you have time to Think about this kind of stuff. (I know it shows).
So what do you think, and why?????
Just for fun, Tim Bain