Class 56 on D&RG

Earl Wrote:
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> The ultimate demise of the Class 56 was the 1911
> boiler inspection law. They were built with iron
> boilers and were deemed too small to bother with.
By 1911 the Class 56 engines were almost all gone.
year/# of Class 56's on D&RG[1]
1877...........1
1878...........5
1879...........9
1880..........52
1881[2]-85....53
1886[3]-1901..42[4]
1902..........40
1903..........39
1904-06.......38
1907..........36
1908-15........9[5]
1916...........6
1917...........0
[1] data compiled from "Steam in the Rockies" by my 14 yr old self, 1975
[2] last new class 56 delivered in '81
[3] 1886 9 engines to D&RGW Ry (Utah)
[4] SFS #3 became 2nd D&RG #71, 1896-1908. Assigned Calss 56 "assignment may have been arbitrary." Not included in totals.
[5] listed as having been converted to 0-8-0
.
I've always thought that the end of Class 56 came about because of the std gauging of the San Luis Valley lines in 1899-1902 and, in 1906, of Montrose-Grand Jct. In the same era, the 15 new Class 125 engines must also have helped push Class 56 out of use. There are pictures of long dead lines of Class 56 engines at Alamosa in 1906. Then with the traffic drop after the Rich Man's Panic (1907) most of the class was scrapped in '08.
By the time the 1911 law came around, there were only a handful left anyway, being used only as switchers, probably made it an easy choice to scrap 'em. If there had still been 30+ in use, might have been different?

Hank
ps I *tried* to start a different thread on this...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/29/2016 11:34AM by hank.