Re: Senior Moment

And "M" apparently wasn't good for Mallets either, so they used "L"...

"M" was used for Mountain types, 4-8-2.

It's really not that extensive, G for Mogul, T for ten-wheeler, C for Consolidation, K for Mikado, P for Pacific, S for six-wheeler, M for Mountain and Northern, apparently, the D&RGW didn't see much difference between a 4-8=2 and a 4-8-4, L for Mallets, including simple articulated like the Challengers.

The number was the TE of the locomotive.

BTW, they were never lettered or referred to with the dash. It's not a K=27, it's a K27.

Now, if you're a D&RGW diesel fan, it gets kind of weird, because D&RGW enginemen referred to them by their horsepower ratings. For instance, what most people would call an SD-45, or a "5300" for the series they were numbered in, a D&RGW employee would call it a "3800", its rated horsepower... Easier to calculate how much it could pull that way... I once talked to a D&RGW engineman and he had no idea the locomotive he just brought into the shop at Burnham was an SD-45...

Robert
Robert