Re: Snow Plows on the Rio Grande

Herb:

459 was also equipped with the large wedge plow in the 30s and early 40s as it was the regular Silverton branch engine for a number of years.

The D&RGW records, unfortunately, were not always kept up-to-date. A number of major modifications are not shown on the equipment cards. For example, no plow pilot is shown for 479, yet photos show it with one almost from the beginning.

D&RGW records do not show application of plow pilots or wedge plows to any of the K27s. Some K27s, K28s, and K37s were equipped with a small plow pilot in the 20s and 30s, but records do not show this. A retired D&RGW engineer told me of running K27s on the Crested Butte branch in the 20s with this type of plow pilot...some call this a butterfly plow.

D&RGW records for the K28s show:

470...no plow pilot shown
471...pilot plow 1-1-40
472...no plow pilot shown (photos show pilot plow)
473...plow pilot 1-1-40
474...no plow pilot
475...no plow pilot shown
476...no plow pilot shown
477...no plow pilot shown (photos show pilot plow)
478...plow pilot 12-1-42
479...no plow pilot shown

480...no plow pilot shown
481...no plow pilot shown
482...plow pilot 1-1-40
483...plow pilot 1-1-40
484...plow pilot not shown
485...plow pilot not shown
486...plow pilot not shown
487...plow pilot not shown
488...plow pilot not shown
489...plow pilot not shown

No plow pilots are shown on K37 equipment cards.

I will be doing a chapter on plow pilots in volume one of my snow fighting project, but it is difficult as the records are just not complete. Folks assume that the D&RGW recorded everything they did, but that is just not the case.

Jerry Day
Longmont, CO