Many of you have probably been waiting for an update on RGS 20. Well we have been making steady progress, some pretty visual others less so.

Before the locomotive even came home we began making a work list of what we expected to do based on what we knew and modified where necessary when she came home.
Some progress had already been made on the tender by the time she came home. We picked up where Strasburg left off on the tender. That sounds like I'm putting Strasburg in a bad light, to save money the tender was sent back for CRRM to complete. As of his week we have installed the internal baffles, and fabricated new interior braces, modifications were made to the flare and the tank leg boxes. The frame was reinforced in one area, and new threaded studs were ordered for the rear coupler pocket. We went through the brake rigging, replacing as needed. With the rigging installed we will service the brake cylinder and air test it all next week. We are working to finish the tender first, but work continues on the locomotive as well.

For safety and sanity all the air brake plumbing will be replaced with new schedule 80 seamless pipe. We are replicating sections using the originals as patterns. Some pieces are missing so we are using pre restoration and historic photos to replicate pipes as close as possible. We are probably 60-70% done with piping.
At the front of the engine the pilot, steps, coupler and pocket have been mocked up to check fit and clearances. New hardware has arrived to attach it all. The pilot itself was removed this week and will be media blasted and repaired as needed.

The Smoke stack was installed the week after she arrived in Golden.The holes for the headlight bracket have been measured out and 2 have been drilled. We also have a mock headlight on for looks.The restored headlight will be installed later. The bell has been mounted and a new clapper was fabricated as 20s went missing years ago. Sounds pretty good, in fact it is very similar to RGS 41s. We have begun fabricating new sander lines as hers were in very poor shape. We have sorted out the cab floor, and many other cab related parts. We hope to have the new cab installed sometime in early August.

Below is an overall shot of the tender. The new main res tank and piping can be seen. We starting installing the coal boards and discovered that they are to short and leave an awful large gap at the bottom. New 14" wide, 9' long Doug fir boards were ordered.


The old main res tank will sit atop of the new tank to maintain her in service look. Steel is on order to fabricate a rear wall for the coal bunker.


Here you can see 20s tender "sub floor" This is rather new wood replaced by the Rocky Club. A new steel shovel sheet will cover all of this.


Most of the brake rigging was in good shape, however 1 slack adjuster, 2 levers, and 1 brake beam had to be replaced.




Jeff Taylor
CRRM curator of equipment and rolling stock.