A WAG and some research ideas (Re: How ubiquitous were machine shops?)

I'm going to expose my ignorance by musing on this a bit.
During the 1920's major changes were occurring in how the D&RG(W) operated. the coming of the K-28's(1923), K-36's (1925) and K-37's (1928 & 1930) kicked the K-27's to lesser services and moved the older engines out of mainline service (except Gunnison-Montrose) entirely. By the end of the decade I assume things were working pretty much the way the are in Jimmy's posts of dispatcher sheets from the 1930's & 40's, IE: helpers working out of of Salida or Gunnison with a few held at Sargent during high traffic periods (stock rushes, for example) but nothing staying there as a general rule. Under that system it would have been wasteful to have expensive tools sitting mostly idle at places like Sargent, Cimarron or Chama. Same for paying engine service workers to mostly sit on their hands at those places. the big question(s) would seem to me to be: What was the situation in 1920? If it was different, when did it change?

Going back 20 years to the turn of the century, when Class 70 (C-17, C-19) engines were the BIG engines, there were engines & crews based at all these locations regularly and, in my best guess, there probably *were* some machines, and workers, there to deal with minor problems. Not a fully equipped shop, but some basic things. Then, as bigger engines came into service and operating practices changed, they went away. As evidence, I'd point to the old boilers known to have been installed at places like Chama, presumably to (among other things) supply power to drive some such tools. Note that even in this era, really big work was done at Salida or Alamosa. For reference, somewhere in "Little Engines and Big Men" (too lazy to go find page no.) Lathrop remarks on West-end engines being sent to Salida for major shopping spinning drivers all the way over Marshall because they had grooves worn in their tires from the 40 lb rail west of Gunny and, on the 65 lb rail on the pass, were riding on less than an inch of the unworn section of those tires! Note that the number of people working in the roundhouse/shops in places like Gunnison, Durango , Ridgway & Rico all declined during the 1920's also as more work was moved to Salida and/or Alamosa.

All of that being said, I'd suggest the best place to look for info on what tools *were* still at Sargent et. al. in 1919-20 would be the field notes from the ICC valuation teams that were roaming around then. Of course they may have still been there but not in use by that time. I would expect such tools were up to 30 years old by then, or even older if they had been cascaded down from places like Burnham or Pueblo as newer tools were received there, and pretty much worn out. As such they may have sat for a while, out of use, before being junked.

I don't have access to the ICC notes but some one here has referenced them here in the past. Anybody have copies and do they cover this? Also informative might be any D&RG payroll information showing if any machinists, etc were employed at Sargent in the early 1920's. Perhaps the 1920 US census for might also have some information to offer? If crews or service workers were shown as residing in places like Chama, Sargent or Cimarron that might be a major clue. Comparing to older records, like the 1890 or 1900 census, might also be informative.

So, not much help with the question but I hope at least I may have given birth to some research plans. Wish I had the time to dig into it but I'm not that familiar with sites where such info might be found and (it's Spring!) up to my ears in things that have to get done before the end of April.

good luck,
hank