Greg Scholl Wrote:
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> I have a few scenes of it in the orginal Bumble
> Bee paint in 1951.
> I always felt the 473 was the special engine of
> the 3 for some reason.
> I guess I always liked it cause it was not the
> "main engine" most of the times I was out there in
> the 60's-80's. Seemed like 476 and 478 were the
> engines on the most trains. Back in the 60's the
> engine was the Durango switcher, and in the end it
> was the last one on the San Juan.
> In addition it shows up in the late 40's film
> clips we have of 2 different San Juan runs. Are
> both 478 and 473 operational currently, or just
> one?
> Greg
While 473 was the used on the last run of the abbreviated 215-216 between Chama and Dulce. the last day the San Juan ran in Jan. 1951 had 478, 484 and 488 in use.
The first time I rode the Silverton in 1967, it was behind 473. In our annual visits to Durango for the next 13 years I saw 473 run every year except 1968, when 473 was held out as the spare because it missed it's date with the Alamosa shop in late 1967. It was supposed to go east, but weather cancelled the train and there were no more run until spring. It would get to Alamosa until the fall of 1968.
473 was the last D&RGW engine to run on the Silverton Branch in October, 1980. It was also road engine on the first D&SNG revenue train in May, 1981.