Re: T-12 operation between Alamosa and Durango?

rehunn Wrote:
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> My thought would be that the arrival of the K-27s
> pretty much exiled the T-12s to lesser assignments
> BUT maybe it's just my observance but there
> doesn't seem
> to be many say twenties shots of trains over
> Cumbres. The DPL collection might have many but
> few get posted.

To the best of my knowledge, that only happened on Marshall Pass. Up until the K-28's arrived a K-27(class 125) would haul the train to Sargent, then a T-12 would handle the rest of the run to Gunnison. Another T-12 would run Gunnison-Ouray. Mudhens were too slow, except on the pass where speeds were more restricted.

From Alamosa to Durango the only section where class 125 engines were allowed before the heavier rail arrived beginning in 1922 was Chama-Cumbres. So, AFAIK, class 47 (T-12) engines continued to handle trains 115/116 until heavier rail and the class 148 (K-28) engines, which could run as fast as the class 47's, arrived in 1922-24.

By the mid-1920's the T-12's (reclassified, 1924) were (again, AFAIK) used only on the Salida-Alamosa, Antonito-Santa Fe and Gunnison-Ouray passenger trains. Service between Salida & Alamosa ended in 1927, Montrose-Ouray became a mixed in 1930, C class engines took over Gunnison-Montrose in the early 1930's, and the Santa Fe run became a mixed ca 1933.

By the late 1920's some of the light branches, both in rail and traffic, in the Gunnison area were being run with T-12's. Certainly the Lake City branch and possibly, at times and according to some hearsay sources, the Pitken branch. If you look at the schedules for the Lake City run, it didn't challenge the T-12's much on days without much freight(most of them) as it took 3 hours for the 35 miles - each way! If the track had been up to it, which it wasn't, I suspect a T-12 could have made the run in under 2 hours. anyway, Lake City branch was sold in 1933, Pitken abandoned in 1934.

Hank

At any rate, that's the general outline of the later history of the Class 47/T-12 engines, to the best of my knowledge.