Re: Locomotive lead truck mystery redux

Finally had some time to look at this again;

Baldwin class 1026 E 315 is/was indeed Silverton Northern 3. SN 3 was a inside frame 2-8-0 with an inside bearing pilot truck. Clearly I was confusing SN 3 and 34 this morning.

Thus as Earl pointed out, the axle is one of SN 3’s tender truck axles (pretty amazing that it still exists and really neat to see)

As best I can find, SN 3’s tender had 26” wheels and the locomotive was scrapped in Seattle after returning fromWWII service on the White Pass.

The D&RGW did do work on the SN locomotives so it is perfectly plausible for tha Alamosa shop to have ended up with the axle (if SN 3’s tender needed a new wheelset, it would be quicker to replce it with one out of inventory than to put new wheels on the axle removed from the tender) and as Earl pointed out the Rio Grande was not overly concerned with an axle going back under the exact object from whence it was removed.

Remaining unanswered is why is this axle sporting 24” steel wheels that have always been painted black with white (and possibly silver on occasion) trim on the tread. Why was the wheelset in the Alamosa sho scrap collection in the early 1970’s (see the previous thread for the backstory of where the wheelset came from)? What else on the D&RGW narrow gauge used 24” wheels past 1920? If there is anything on the D&RGW that used 24” wheels was is scrapped in Alamosas and would the Alamosa shop have hung onto the wheelset ?

The only thing I canfind on the D&RGW narrow gauge that was using 24” wheels was the lead trucks of locomotives 360, 361 and 375. (Again see the earlier thread for a more detailed look at the use of 24” wheels on the Rio Grande). Of these 375 was scrapped in Alamosa in 1949, the first of the three to go. Seems to make sense that the shops would keep the wheelset in case the other two, whic lasted a few more years, needed it.

I don’t want this wheelset to be anything other than what it really is, I would, however, like to know what it really is. So, what did this wheelset come off of?

Jason Midyette