Re: Some K-28 Info

Greg:
I am more of a historian than a technical or mechanical guy, but here is what I know. The flangers were added by the D&RGW. The RGS added some also. The RGS even added them to D&RGW mudhens they were renting. I suspect the D&RGW provided the materials. The flangers were operated by an air cylinder placed on the pilot deck. I am not sure what their operating clearances were. The D&RGW started adding these to the K classesin the 30s to engines used in passenger and mixed service first. These flangers had been used on some engines earlier such as the T-12s. Some D&RGW freights and mixed trains would use a flanger car behind the engine, but they were used mainly to push the snow away from the track with the blades. A retirede D&RGW engineer told me that rules prohibited them from operating the flanger in a passenger or mixed train. If they needed to flange, they would have to stop, uncouple the engine and flanger from the train, do their flanging and then return for the train. I suspect it was this that prompted the D&RGW to put flangers on more of the engines.
Jerry