Re: Royal Gorge Scenic Railway Sold

Weston,

The collection of large scale (3" scale) equipment you saw inside was all built by Ralph MacAllister in Boulder, CO. Ralph had a Bill Daney 4-4-0 that he converted into a 4-4-2 with a really nice Vanderbuilt tender. He had an Alco RS-1 or RS-3 that was powered by a Ford 6-cyl engine with a 3 or 4 speed tranny. His two crowning achievements were a 15" gauge model of a Gilpin County 2-truck Shay that he finished with a lot of stainless steel and brass and used a 2-cylinder Locomobile engine and a 3" scale 2-8-8-4 based strongly on the D&RGW's L-131 class 2-8-8-2's. Most of his collection is owned by Lee Merrick in Wisconsin. The 2-8-8-4 has been for sale for a while. DOn't know if it will ever sell anywhere near the asking price as the condition of the boiler or the specs it was built to may strongly discourage a lot of folks from pursuing it. All of Ralph's equipment was built to 14-1/8" gauge which is exactly 1/4 of standard gauge which is 56-1/2". This poses a bit of problem as the vast majority of equipment in this size is either 14" or 15" gauge.

Rob Gardner
Massillon, OH