Re: Antonito's leaky tank

John et al -

Per Hereford & Robart, the tank at Antonito froze during the winter of 1965-66, and would no longer hold enough water to fill a tender quickly.  After that, westbound trains stopped at La Jara to top up their cisterns, and then while one engine was topping up it's fuel at the Red Devil loader in Antonito the other engine would top off its water again – but slowly – since the fill pipe for the water tower could still be turned on.  (See pp. 27 & 31 in 'Rio Grande Narrow Gauge - The Final Years, Alamosa to Chama.')

I have one photo from 1967 that shows the August 28 westbound freight stopped at – or just departing from – the small tank at La Jara, where I vaguely remember only the road engine took on water:


This makes sense in terms of saving time in both La Jara and later in Antonito, since if the helper did most of the work on the short, nearly level run from there to Antonito it's tender could be topped with slow-running water from the Antonito tank while the road engine was taking on coal, and only a few minutes would be needed to top up the water in the nearly full tender of the road engine.   This is just a hunch based on a very faint memory from more than 51 years ago . . .

- El Abuelo Histœrico, Greengo y Curmudgeoño de los Locomoturas Viejos y Verdes,
aka Der Grossväterlich DünkelOlivGrünDampfKesselMantelLiebHabender



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 10/07/2018 09:09PM by Russo Loco.