Dirk Ramsey Wrote:
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> Ooooh, Don't go there!
Nah, he can go there because it'd take all of a few minutes to point out that as unpainted planished iron, the boiler jacket was metallic grey (shade may vary), not green or blue or pink or any other painted color. Painted jackets came much later. The painted portions of the locomotive, however, were originally painted olive green overall as the primary base color, as were most of the class 56 locomotives. The D&RG had probably repainted it to black by the time that photograph was taken because none of the original linework is visible and the cab might be a replacement.
I've seen that photograph before. The class 56--Baldwin class 10-24-E--was the most widespread type of narrow gauge consolidation locomotive during the 1870's and 1880's; second to the similar class 60 on the D&RG, but more common elsewhere. The narrow gauge railroad that ran in my own local region (the Conotton Valley Railroad) had perhaps twenty of them. Out on the west coast the SPC operated the type. The South Park ran them and one survives today (number 191). Similar models ran in Brazil, as well as in New Zealand as that country's "T" class. It was universally well-regarded and I've never seen any but positive comments from the type's many operators.
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Chris: Since you seem to be going through DPL's online collections, look for a photograph of the Silverton branch that shows a train on a high rock cut above the Animas river. If you zoom in far enough you'll see a class 56 2-8-0 and a class 38 4-4-0 double-heading a passenger train perched on the ledge; it's well worth the look.
