Re: D&RG 168

The chance to see this nearly original Denver and Rio Grande locomotive in service is such good news, and it looks just great. We should not forget that 168 was an engine on the doubleheaded second section of the first two trains to Rico.

This photo is a retrospection back to the perilous days when the Western Pacific was gaining control of the D&RG and the board put the road in receivership. With the USRA calling the shots, the D&RG, in effect, had two masters...the USRA and the WP Construction Corporation. Somehow the D&RG survived the foreclosure sale after WWI, but WP still had gotten control and looted all the D&RG assets, eventually the directors reorganized as D&RGW in 1921...but by then the road was in such poor shape that it was called "Dilapidated and Rapidly Growing Worse" and could easily have met the same fate as the CM.

It's so fortunate that 168 was donated to Colorado Springs in 1938, long before Bill Holtman or Perlman could prevent it's historic preservation.