Re: Random Fuzzy Photos #9

JP, someone told me you were posting old pics and these are some good ones. It also inspires me to share a story about the picture of #12 at Hall Tunnel...…….

Those of you with "experience" will notice the color coming from #12's stack and recognize that its not good news. In their haste to try out #12 they left the yard with "at least a couple hundred gallons" of fuel which "should have been plenty". Maybe so, but they forgot that the head pressure of only a couple hundred gallons wouldn't be enough to keep a fire going.

So they made it to Hall, the fire went out and they couldn't relight it. The decision was made to try to get back up to Silver Plume anyway.

Meanwhile, the late Mike Squibb and I were on the regular train at the Devils Gate station with #44 and 8 cars. We had been monitoring the radio calls from #12's test run. Soon we couldn't help but notice the clouds of white smoke coming from the vicinity of Hall Tunnel. #12 said they were making a run for Silver Plume and we would meet them there.

Well, as you can imagine with no fire #12 didn't make it very far. They ran out of steam and came to a halt at the bottom of the Ladder track (just past the Pin Truss bridge). Mike and I came up to them with #44 and train and coupled on. Now we would try to pull the 8 car passenger train and push a dead Shay (aka BOAT ANCHOR) up to Silver Plume.

At this point in her operating life #44 was a pretty tired puppy. She had had a rough life in El Salvador before coming to Colorado in 1968 to run on the Colorado Central NG RR in Central City. She was always a regular and reliable runner at Central City and on the Loop. At some point in her Central American travels she had been involved in a rear end collision which bent her rear frame rail and generally knocked her bar frame loose. The old girl's frame always worked back and forth - the harder you worked her the worse it was.

So here we are with an 8 car train loaded with passengers (which was and still is a heavy train in and of itself) up against a dead Shay on a 3.5% grade. You had to hand it to old #44, she started the mess on the grade and up the hill we went. Going around the High Fill curve (4%+ grade on a 30 degree curve) the bar was in the corner, the throttle all the way out, sanders running. Pow, pow, pow around the curve we went at little more than walking speed. Mike and I thought the rods were going to fall off, but she made it without missing a beat. I was watching the frame bang back and forth through the cab floor boards. The cab shook so much the windows were falling out of their frames. But we made it to Silver Plume and the train passengers got quite a show. The 1986 season was the last one #44 operated. #12 went on to a rocky career at the Loop, but that's a whole nuther set of stories.....

Phil