Vetapass Wrote:
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> Thank you for the update. This has to be one of
> the coolest projects out there! The D&RG Class 42
> are one of my favorite NG locomotives.
> [attachment 68218 Ptarmigan.JPG]


That's a lovely model, that and the similar-looking class 38 are undoubtedly my favorite D&RG types. I can never quite decide whether I prefer the green scheme or the black used on 99, 100, and 101 because both look great. That detail striping is hard enough to do on a 2D display, I hate to think of how tedious it had to be on a physical model, but it sure looks nice. I particularly applaud the modeler for painting the cab appropriately and not in some sort of faux woodgrain finish that's inappropriate for the class 42's. The boiler jacket looks great too. These and the class 56 and class 60 types are what I think of when I see "D&RG" on a page someplace.

Interestingly, all of the conventional-style D&RG 4-4-0's had steel boilers and firebrick in the fireboxes as built--neither of which were yet commonplace circa 1880. I assume the steel boiler was a safety feature for the passenger power and the brick probably helped keep smoke down. I wonder if they retained the firebrick after overhauls. The freight engines didn't get such fancy things.

Do you know when the transverse toolboxes on the rear part of the tender tank appeared? I know they arrived very early--they're present in nearly all in-service photographs--but don't see that they were built with them. It is not present on the builder's photograph of #88. Besides that I have one in-service photograph of class 38 "Rio Bravo" that does not appear to have the rear toolbox although the photo is so grainy I can't be sure it isn't merely obscured.