3400's (was: Re: Alamosa May 5 1949)

The L-96 engines were moved to Alamosa in the late 1940s because they had been kicked off of Tennesse Pass by the new diesels.
D&RGW had received several sets of FTs during the war (and one of F3s in 1946 0r 47) and in '48-'49 begin buying F7s (8 4-unit sets). These were pushing steam off the red ball freights and were entering helper service by 1949.
This pushed the newer steam engines into secondary services, in turn pushing the older ones still farthur down.
Of course if the D&RGW had remained all-steam the same process would have occurred post-war. The L-96 engines were pushing 40 years old by the early 1950's. They had a good run though, not like the 1800's (M-68, 1937) or the first group of 3700s (L-105, 1938) which were also gone by 1951-52. (the 1942 L-105s lasted until '54-'56)
hank



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/14/2017 01:03PM by hank.