Re: #30 / #74 Reassembly

The running boards were not replaced by the RGS. They were all fabricated from the straight running boards and possibly other material when #74 was fitted with Walshearts valve gear by the C&S shops in 1927, if my memory serves me. It would not surprise me to learn that one of the original running boards was replaced in C&N and DB&W days as a result of a couple of bad mishaps there. That would explain the differences even today. The air cylinder which operated the pilot flanger was mounted under the running board just ahead of the engineer's side cab door. The slot and where the retainer hook had been was still there in Boulder. I have not seen any evidence that the pilot flanger was ever there on the RGS, or it's cylinder. The point is that all of this was still left from the C&S. The RGS did very little to her.

There was, as Shane mentioned, a metal cover that was simply bolted on to cover the hole left by the cinder drain tube from the Ridgway catcher. We just took it off when we put the replica Ridgway on it.

Note in the picture that the upper ring of the stack is long missing from the stack, removed as soon as the #74 arrived at the C&S. When we put #74's replica Ridgway on #346, it's ring too had to be again removed so it would fit. It had just been brazed back in place after it's time on the C&S.

It will be nice to see #74 in RGS livery, as it was painted out when it arrived in Boulder in 1951.

#74 looks great, and I can't wait to see her again.

Thanks for posting the pictures. I was afraid all that had been lost.