Chris Walker Wrote:
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> I see from that thread there is still the perpet-
> uated myth that the D&RGW built these all by
> themselves at Burnham, conveniently forgetting
> about the major involvement of AMSCO Found-
> ries,General Iron-Stearns-Roger, and the Dorr
> Company. Obviously doing the casting, etc.,
> that the D&RGW couldn't do on their own.
Russo Loco Wrote (on another thread):
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> The K-36's were NOT built from standard-
> gauge boilers; they were designed & built from
> the ground up – brand new – by Baldwin Loco-
> motive Works in 1925. I have no idea why
> Baldwin instead of Alco – maybe just a lower
> competitive bid? The ten K-36's were so suc-
> cessful that the D&RGW reverse-engineered their
> running gear – to the point that IIRC some of
> the components can be swapped from one class
> to the other – and built the K-37's in 1928 & '30
> by duplicating the K-36 running gear at Burn-
> ham Shops in Denver and adding the boilers
> from ten older standard gauge 2-8-0's that were
> no longer needed.
That's the gist of it. There
> are many here on the NGDF who are far more
> knowledgeable than myself who can – and
> hopefully will – add a great deal of detail
> to this fascinating story.
Sorry, Chris -
I didn't mean to imply that the
Rio Grande built the K-37's all by themselves, any more than Alco, Baldwin or Lima built locos all by themselves. Air pumps & feedwater heaters, trailing trucks (standard gauge, anyway) & tender trucks, boosters, Box-Pok drivers, sheet steel for boilers, cabs, & tenders, etc., etc., were generally provided by outside suppliers, and in the case of the K-37's the cylinders, frames (IIRC) and many other castings were provided by Stearns-Rogers and other suppliers in Denver using measurements given them by the D&RGW that they had gotten by reverse-engineering the K-36's and adjusted as necessary to accommodate the older boilers from standard-gauge 2-8-0's. Even the beautiful Moffat Green paint for the K-37's jackets was ordered from an outside company
. . .
- El Abuelo Histœrico, Greengo y Curmudgeoño de los Locomoturas Viejos y Verdes,
aka Der Grossväterlich DünkelOlivGrünDampfKesselMantelLiebHabender