Re: Just a little more history on the "flying Rio Grande"

Herb Kelsey Wrote:
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> That 318-340 tender situation is an interesting
> one. The tender carried by the 318 was the
> original tender from the Florence and Cripple
> Creek and is the one that had the 'backwards' Rio
> Grande's. It has trucks that are very different
> from the 'standard' C-class tender trucks of the
> Rio Grande.
>
> Because of a long stretch between water tanks on
> the Ouray Branch in later years (IIRC one of the
> tanks went out of service or burned), the little
> tender of the 318 was not of sufficient capacity
> for the branch. So they swapped the larger,
> approximately 3000 gallon tender on to whichever
> engine was assigned to the branch. In those final
> years that tender was assigned to the 340. It had
> previously been on the 345, being in use with this
> engine when it was on the C&S. It too had unique
> trucks, with visible coil springs. This, along
> with the missing beading on the raised portion of
> the bunker made it very distictive. I'm pretty
> sure it was given to the 340 because of her
> assignment as back up engine for the 318 on the
> Ouray Branch in the late '40s.
>
> What is interesting is that the 340 ended up with
> the 318's little tender and 318 ended up with the
> big one, since she was the last engine in use on
> the branch. Up until the 1990's you could still
> make out the "318" under the paint on the rear of
> 340's tender at Knott's Berry Farm. The big
> tender is, of course, temporarily in use behind
> 346 at the Colorado Railroad museum.

"Temporarily!?"

Robert