Re: 346 on a 4% grade

The reason for using four K-37's on stock trains on Marshall Pass was speed.They wanted to be sure to get the train to Salida as quickly as possible. There was a federal regulation that stock could not be confined in cars for more than 48 hours without being unloaded for water and rest. That is also the reason you see heavy stock train out of Chama with four engines to Cumbres Pass. At Salida and Alamosa, the stock would be transferred to standard gauge stock cars, so they would be out of the cars for water and rest. When cars were loaded at the far western ends of the narrow gauge, they really had to hustle to get them over the road as quickly as possible.