I totally agree that wheelsets are changed all of the time. Most of the narrow gauge cars I have looked at have a mish mash of wheelset dates and the wheelsets themselves show varying degrees of wear, indicative of occasional replacement as a wheelset wears out or is damaged.
As such, 4319's wheelsets stood out as 3 of the 4 are January 1904 dated and the 4th is from the 1910's. The three 1904 dated sets show essentially the same amount of wear, which would seem to indicate that they have been together for their service lives. I also feel safe in saying that about the only time in a narrow gauge freight car's life that it would have all matching wheelsets is when it was first built. While possible, it does not seem likely that 4319 experienced an incident in the first 2 years of its life that caused all 4 wheelsets to be replaced with brand new wheels. It also does not seem likely that the C&S would have put the effort into putting a matched set of used wheels on the car either, though it is not out of the realm of possibility. Thus, I am left to wonder what, if anything, 4319's wheels are telling us.
As a side note, the only other cars I have seen with matched wheelsets dating to around when the car was built are two D&RGW 4000 series outfit cars, 04432 now at Silverton and the water service car now at Ridgway. Both are riding on their original 1898 dated Fort Madison Iowa wheels. Given that the C&S built the "Phase I" coal cars in Denver and most likely would have sourced the wheels from Griffin in Denver, it does raises the possibility that the paper records regarding the construction date may not be telling the whole story. Of course its just as much a possibility that there is some other reason for 4319 to have matching wheelsets
Jason Midyette
