Re: Details from TRAINS magazine on 470's Series
| June 10, 2013 08:47AM |
Here are a couple of items from the Farmington paper from 1942 which apply to the sending of the D&RGW equipment to Alaska (and other places)
There is some slight justification for the claims of "waste and amateurs" in the news paper article cited in the 'Trains" article.
The movement from Seattle to Skaguay, By Barge, was not the smoothest operation, I believe that one of the barges, with at least one locomotive, sank and had to be refloated. The winter of 1942-3 was pretty hard on the railroad with the increased traffic. I suspect that given the nature of the draft, that there were not too many of the Army people with the 30 0r 40 years of experience that many of the Rio Grande people had.
This is not intended to slight the army people, they did a wonderfull job in very trying times.
There is some slight justification for the claims of "waste and amateurs" in the news paper article cited in the 'Trains" article.
The movement from Seattle to Skaguay, By Barge, was not the smoothest operation, I believe that one of the barges, with at least one locomotive, sank and had to be refloated. The winter of 1942-3 was pretty hard on the railroad with the increased traffic. I suspect that given the nature of the draft, that there were not too many of the Army people with the 30 0r 40 years of experience that many of the Rio Grande people had.
This is not intended to slight the army people, they did a wonderfull job in very trying times.
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488 stops for water at Los Pinos tank on closing day Oct. 1979. Photo courtesy Don Richter
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