Re: Labato Question...

John:
The weight limitation also applied to other bridge structures on the D&RGW: Cascade Trestle, Almont Bridge on the Crested Butte branch and others.
There are pictures of the San Juan with a 470 and 480 crossing Lobato and Cascade, but a rotary was pretty heavy and counted as one engine.
One engine could actually propell the rotary. There is an incident on the RGS when Rotary 02 was pushed by number 25 because it was the only one available. The other engines provided additional traction of course, but it was not because of the weight of the rotary, but in case the first engine lost traction on icy rails.
The last run of Rotary 00 on the Crested Butte branch was propelled by 487 and 489 and they stopped at Almont to let 487 push 00 across and 489 followed with the two cabooses (this info was from a Western State College student who was on the train).