"With the coming of World War II the U.S. Government's attention was suddenly concentrated on the railroads of Alaska, a vital region in the war with Japan. Governament officials decided that additional motive power was urgently needed to handle the immense wartime traffic on the White Pass and Yukon Route, a narrow gauge line which extended 111 miles from Skagway to Whitehorse. After a Survey of available motor power in the United States, the Government requisitioned D&RGW's 10 470's for use on the WP&YR along with some other engines from various parts of the U.S.-- including a couple of Silverton Northern engines stored for several years at Silverton.
D&RGW argued that at least some of the engines were needed for its own part in the war effort, and a compromise was worked out. Seven engines went to Alaska and three (473, 476, and 478) remained on the D&RGW, principally to keep the daily
San Jaun in operation on the Alamosa-Durango run.
The usual cloak of wartime secrecy concealed most of the details of the shipment of the engines to Alaska, but it is known that they were shipped by rail to Seattle and thence by ship to Skagway in 1942 and 1943. the engines were renumbered 250 series--probably 250 to 256, in the same order as their Rio Grande numbers. Few pictures have turned up which show the engines in the far north, but apparently the 2-8-2's had the letters U.S.A. on the tender and the number only on the cab.
One comment in the March 12, 1943, Greeley (Colo.) Tribune sheds some light on the situation:
ARMY WASTES LOCOMOTIVES-Seven smart little Denver and Rio Grande Western railroad engines which the army requisitioned, over the protests of Coloradoans, for use in Alaska, have never been put to continuous, effective use, a report published in the Alamosa Daily Courier states. In the hands of amateur railroaders, four of the seven were allowed to freeze and burst, two plunged over cliffs into the Whitehorse River, and the seventh is still on the docks at Seattle, the report states. The Army is now trying to grab other D&RGW narrow-gauge locomotives in apparent disregard of the fact that the grab would seriously hinder the movement of important war materials in southwestern Colorado. After the war the engines were returned to Seattle and were eventually scrapped in 1945 or 1946."
Mudhens and Sport Models (The story of America's most celebrated Mikados) R.H.Kindig TRAINS September 1961, pgs 20-33
Still a Student,
Dave
