Re: Crews and the 460

It is a bit of a mystery why 460 stayed in service as long as it did. The other Stephenson Valve Gear equipped slide valve saturated K-27's (450, 451, 457) were out of service by the early 1930's.

A motive power survey done for the D&RG in the teens proclaimed the K27's were hampered by the eccentrics on the in-between-the-frames valve gear were prone to severe wear account the eccentrics got buried in the snow in the winter time and the snow wiped off all the lubrication. This was the cause of rapid eccentric wear and poor performance. The report recommended conversion to piston valves, Walscheart Valve gear and application of superheaters.

The ever-so-cheap D&RG managed to rebuilt 4 engines with piston valves, keeping the problematic Stephenson Valve Gear, but did not superheat them. It was not until the K28's arrived that that the Rio Grande found out what a superheated engine could accomplish, and began a program to upgrade the K-27's as they came up for major overhauls. Eventually all but 5 of the engines were rebuilt. By the late 1920's, after the arrival of the 36's and the first 37's, they began to rethink the K27 rebuild program and decided they had enough rebuilt engines. 462 was halfway through its rebuild. The running gear was rebuilt, but the boiler not started. It was decided to put 462 back together as a piston valve engine with a saturated steam boiler. 450,51 and 57 were set aside when their flue time expired. With the depression on, they were not needed and never ran again. For some reason 460 continued to soldier on as a snowplow engine and later in service up in Salida until the decision was handed down to clean out the remaining slide valve saturated engines. Makes me wonder if the decision making people knew 460 was still in service.

462 continued in service, quite often leased to the RGS until 1949, then scrapped.

There was a video put out in the 1980's featuring Otto Perry's RGS films. In that they interviewed a couple of remaining guys who fired 462 on the RGS. They commented that it used noticeably more water than the superheated engines, but steamed pretty well. But, if you got behind on water, it was a major job to catch up again.