"It isn't Easy being Green" - #489 ...

Hi, All -

2010 is C&TS 40th Anniversary ... and #489's 60th (sort of):

As most of you must be aware by now, Alan, Jay and Roger have plans in the works
for a big Celebration on September 3 thru 6, 2010, honoring the 40^th Anniversary of #483
pulling the first C&TS train into Chama on Sunday, September 6^th, 1970. (No details yet, but
Something IS Happening - see [www.ngdeadgoatsaloon.com], and scroll down about ¹/₄ page.)

Memorial Day Weekend, 2010, is the 60^th Anniversary of another glorious event in Narrow Gauge History - Engine #489's first appearance as a "Painted Lady"! ... YES, at the tender age of 25 - long before she donned her notoriously gaudy "Auntie Mame" outfit in 2008 (see [ngdiscussion.net]) - the D&RGW dressed her in a DARK GREEN Jacket for a pair of RMRC excursions to Monarch Pass and Poncha Pass. IIRC, these were the last narrow gauge passenger operations out of Salida - certainly the last to Poncha Pass, as the Valley Line was torn up the following year.

I therefore propose the following to honor BOTH of the above Anniversaries:

ONE GREEN Jacket, ONE Season, ONE Historic Re-Creation ...

For the 2010 Anniversary Season ONLY - May through October - paint #489 EXACTLY as she was painted by the D&RGW sixty years before - dark green jacket and graphite smokebox, etc. ... We'll let the serious historians determine the correct colors and lettering.

I hereby pledge to match, dollar for dollar, up to $2,000 in donations* toward #489 having a dark green jacket for the 2010 season, with any excess income over the cost of the paint going toward hiring a local teenager or two to keep her Clean so the Green can be Seen ...

Please see [ngdiscussion.net].

- Russo de los Locos Verdes / El Curmudgeono Viejo y Verde

* This does not supersede nor cancel my previous offer of help toward painting #492/497 with a green jacket, but the latter does depend on the outcome of the determination as to whether this would be historically accurate or not. In any event, even if Del McCoy's caption for Otto Perry's photo of #497's delivery to Alamosa IS correct, "Resplendent in a dark green jacket ...", it looks like I'll have at least two or three years to replenish my bank account before an operational K-37 is ready for her own dark green jacket ...

p.s. Does anyone have a COLOR photo of #489 in June or July, 1950, to post?



Edited 11 time(s). Last edit at 07/25/2009 11:16PM by Russo Loco.