Re: One oF The Most Famous Narrow Gauge Engines Ever!

#50's carrier in Durango was pretty short - 1963 to 1968. Once freight operations ended out of Durango in the end of 1968, the switch crew was abolished. With the construction of the new loop in the spring of 1968, the switch crew did not need to turn the train. About the only thing they did on a regular basis was switch the business cars on and off the train at the end of the day.

The 50 was a very much unloved piece of equipment. The switch crew hated it (it did away with the fireman's switcher job), and did whatever they could to break it. #50 had to work hard turning the Silverton consists. They liked to turn the train counter clockwise as the grade coming up past the car shop was easier than going up past the County Shop. As it was they'd get a big roll on the train down past Graden's Mill and just barely make up the hill past the car shop and water tank. I saw #50 trying to spot coal behind the tipple. They'd make a run up the track slip down and stall. With the drive wheels still tuning forward, it slid back down the track to the bottom where they tried again. The crews were very hard on the mechanical transmission.

Starting in 1969, the road crews did all the switching, while #50 sat unused. In 1970 it went to Felton. At Roaring Camp, #50 tended to be hard on the 30 lb rail and hand hewn redwood ties on the lower part of the railroad. On the RCBT, they managed to finish off the transmission, and parked it in the mid-1970's. It was doubleheaded with little Kahuku Plantation #3 in 1976, the day the Spring Canyon Trestles burned, trapping both engines and the train at the top of Bear Mountain. It was still in Felton when I worked there in 1979. A couple years later, Bob Shank bought it and moved to his place south of Hermosa.