Re: D&RG 4-4-0

Compressed air will only be used for very short distances - like to pull out from under our covered train shed. When this project began 5 years ago, we only had about 600 feet of display track over by the county fairgrounds, and the compressed air option would have been ideal for short demonstrations for school groups and bus tours. However, the unexpected opportunity to relocate to a large tract of land next to the town park appeared three years ago. We took advantage of the opportunity, moved all of our rolling stock, and have built a high quality 1/2 mile operations loop so we can run extended distances. The compressed air system (hidden in the tender) had already been built, and now will only be used for short moves in the railyard. Using steam for short moves of a couple of hundred feet like this would take a great deal of time to heat up and cool down, plus using compressed air for short moves of convenience saves operational days. The main fuel will be diesel, both for fire safety when we run on commercial railroads in our area (a la the recent D&S conversions), and for convenience, since the closest quality coal source is around 95 miles away and no one delivers to Ridgway, so cost and logistics of coal would be prohibitive, as well as cleanup and disposal of wastes. Oil has always been the planned main fuel.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/19/2020 10:30PM by jgp1843.