I have to weigh in on this since I spoke with Bob on the subject at the last EBT spectacular that he attended. While he believed that the C&S had turned the tires, he also stated that it was what he heard and not what he witnessed for himself. The story makes sense given as Bob pointed out, the light C&S track structure which would give a little bit when the equalizing bottomed out laterally.
When Kelly and I first looked at these pictures we were unable to magnify them on the website and were too cheap to purchase the pictures. With the magnification the pictures make a pretty strong case that the C&S did not turn the tires. The 7/5/41 photo shows a reflection very clearly on the outer radius of #3 but none where the flange would be. Given the shiny flanges on #1 and #4, this reflection should be present on #2 and #3 because they would definitely have been in steady contact with the rail on any curve.
I think the possibility exists that the half flanges were needed on the lumber company trackage and possibly they had it done. I don't recall off hand when it started to operate on the MLC. The final photo of the series pretty clearly shows thinner tires than on the others and the flanges are in place.
I wish Bob were around to talk about this because I think he would give serious consideration to the photographic evidence and he would be the most qualified to weigh it against the anecdotal evidence he received from "old railroaders". In my various conversations with Bob over the years, he seemed to enjoy uncovering the facts and I think this would be an interesting research project for someone. I can't help but think there are photos out there that would help clear this up one way or the other.
The one thing I know for sure, if the locomotive has proper lateral it won't go around much of a bend without hitting the spring rigging with those mini flanges. The condition of the equalizing prior to repair bore this out quite graphically.
