Hi Jeff,
I'm going to take on a couple of your questions about this locomotive.
First, the tender frame was rebuilt by Court Hammond when he "leased" the 71 and equipment from the Gilpin County Historical Society, which, to the best of my knowledge is still the owner of all three pieces of equipment.
Hammond used oversized lumber to rebuild the side sills. The lumber was so large, in fact, that the notches that you see cut into the side sills had to be cobbled in there because the tender trucks wouldn't turn properly and were pushing against the side sills because there wasn't enough room.
WHen I repainted the 71 back in 1970, I looked for evidence of different colors than the ones displayed, aka black. I did absoutely no sandblasting on the locomotive whatsoever, it was all scraping and hand brushing. First off, most of the jacket work was in good shape. I understand that the boiler had been shopped before it was put on display and if it was a major boiler job, the jacket would have been replaced. Remember that the Steam Dome Jacket and the Sand Dome were rolled sheet metal and were also easily replaced.
I checked the domes, scraped off what paint buildup was there and looked at the side view of the layers. Once again, nothing but black.
Now comes what nobody believes. If you take a good look at the photo of 71 that you posted in this thread with the intertwined C&S herald, you will see that the color on the locomotive looks dull, like it's not white or aluminum, but like a dull color. It was neither. This locomotive was lettered in gold paint. I found ample evidence of it on the cab side panels and on the number plate.
The number plate was so heavily varnished to keep the gold "71" in place that I couldn't get the aluminum paint to stick to it once I had removed the black base paint. Whether this evidence still exists is unknown to me as Court Hammond repainted the number plate with that large and totally un-C&S "71" that was used when it was resurrected for that 1988 season. I have heard that he sandblasted the metal on the locomotive, which would have destroyed all of the historical evidence that I tried to keep when I repainted it.
Notice also, that the tender was rebuilt between the Pitkin (Gold Lettering) photo and the time that it was put on display. I did not find any evidence of the large "71" on the tender tank, but I also did not strip much more away than the "Colorado and Southern" lettering strip on both sides of the tender. Of course, the large "Burlington Route" sticker that was put on there could have obliterated the remnants of the tender "71" as well as the rebuilding.
I really wish that she (the 71) could run again, but I would rather see her plinthed like she is than put into the hands of the Hysteric Colorado incompetents. What happened to No. 9 is more than enough evidence of that.
Rick
