I've often wondered why the Grande didn't put roller bearings under the 3' gauge cars int the 1920's. It was a mature technology by then, having been developed before WWI, and the saving of tons of friction on places like Marshall Pass or the Monarch branch would seem to have justified it for the gons used on the coal & rock trains if nothing else. Not to mention rollers are better in low temps.
From what I've read, the big objection to putting roller bearings on freight cars was the idea that you'd spend a boatload of money on it and then, once the car was interchanged, you'd never see it again. Not a problem for the 3' gauge.
Of course I've always wondered why, given all the studies of electrifying Tennessee Pass form 1920-1950, I've never heard of the idea of electrifying Marshall (for the coal trains) ever being considered.
The Grande spent a lot of money in the 1920's on work that should have been done years earlier, on both gauges. Seems like a 3000 kv DC electrification of Marshall, with regenerative braking etc (like the CMStP&P lines), and roller bearings would have fit right in. Electrics like cold weather better than steam does too.
Now granted the D&RGW was borrowing all that money, and that they had pressing needs on the wide gauge lines, it still seems odd to me that the ideas weren't even floating in that brief window between "It's all going to be replaced by standard gauge so why spend money on it." and "We're gong to rip it all up soon so why spend money on it."
Remember, the lines out of Salida, with coal over Marshall, Iron ore over Poncha, and the growing rock traffic from Monarch, were heavy traffic in the 1920's.
Just musing,
Hank
