I guess we are splitting hairs here, but the way I looked at it was, that 497 was shopped and RAN under its own power in 1967. Same for 473, as it pulled the last train to Durango.
I believe the shots I have are taken in 1966, cause they are Black and White. I shot slides in 1968. I knew 497 had been placed back in service in July 1967 cause we have film of the first run from Alamosa
as shot by Fritz Klinke in our "Rio Grande's 4th Division" video. He took some wonderful 16mm films. In another video we have the first run of 492 after it received the new smokebox from 490!
My point with 481 was that it never ran after its rebuild, thus it was never steamed-up until the D&S ran it.
Now here is an interesting question. After 1968 the Rio Grande kept running the Silverton train until Bradshaw bought it in 1981. So what was the last rebuilt engine by the Rio Grande? Did any of the K-28's receive rebuild's like those engines in Alamosa in those last years before 1981??? Surely some work was performed!
Greg
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/13/2019 07:43AM by Greg Scholl.