RDannemann Wrote:
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> Fantastic pic.
>
> Am so glad to see the old girl running on real
> rails
> that go someplace instead of around a tiny
> circle.
>
> The paint or location doesn't matter.
>
> You would think the RGS was petty spiffy and
> looking new before their revenue declined.
>
> IMO, all Locomotives and rolling stock should
> be painted as newish instead of aged and
> neglected due to economics at the end of their
> life in a declining era. Fake aging is a
> Hollywood
> movie thing.
Interesting observation. An overwhelming number of photographs taken of the RGS were made in the last few declining years of the railroad. The equipment looked and was horrible during those struggling years. But for the majority of the life of the railroad maintenance was at a much higher level. This set of excursions depicts the Rio Grande Southern's 455 and caboose 0400 as they appeared in 1940-41 when the Sunrise herald was first applied. Both pieces of equipment would have been pristine in appearance as the 455 was enjoying the first real RGS paint job since being acquired in '39 and the caboose had been thoroughly rebuilt in 1940. The Southern never wasted money on paint - hence the 455 with "Denver & Rio Grande Western" spelled out on the tender for three years, the paint was good so don't bother to paint it
just so it can say RGS - but when they applied it they did it pretty well.
And I have to say that the 463 looks better as the 455 than she does as the 463! Just sayin from an RGS perspective.