Re: The biggest C-classes

As I've mentioned here before, it all depends on which locomotives were in steam on the very few days in the history of the railroads when the fans showed up to take pictures. I would venture a guess that since the late 1950s-early 1960s there are very few trains that have moved on the D&RGW/D&S/C&TS that didn't have their picture taken somewhere over the course of the run. Prior to these years there were literally thousands of runs where no film was exposed.

We have 1923, the first year Otto Perry got out with his camera, several dates around 1926, a couple of days in 1935, a couple of days in 1937 and a couple of days in 1939 when groups of fans hit the mountains for railfanning. Then we have the Rocky Mountain Railroad Club excursions of the 40's and 50's and a day or two before and after each event. Beyond those selective dates, there is no photographic evidence of the miriad trains that were run.

Caution should be seriously advised when making any assumptions on the way this or that railroad "always" ran their trains based on these extremely limited photo resources. What did they do in 1936, '38, '40 - '46? That's where paper like the Cumbres Train Registers, Dispatcher's train sheets, Daily reports to the Receiver for the RGS, etc. are invaluable to show snapshots of railroad operations as they truly existed. As an example, I've heard RGS 41 labeled a "shop queen" because she wasn't anywhere to be found in the photos around 1937. Train Sheets say she and 20 were holding down the fort from Durango to Dolores while the fans were shooting pictures of the Ridgway-Rico ops.