Re: D&RG Class 56 Details

The original cabs of the consolidations were comically cramped although I doubt the engine crews were laughing. There was only about a foot and a half or so between the boiler and the cab wall, if even that much space. That would've made for uncomfortable accommodation even accounting for the average man back then being slimmer and somewhat shorter than today. It appears the desire was to keep the width to about 8 feet. The coaches used by the D&RG that had 2-and-2 seating had about the same width and also had questionably-adequate seat widths (only 35 inches for a double seat). 3 foot gauge roads which used larger dimensions like the Texas & St Louis allowed for more realistic space. The D&RG seems to have re-equipped at least some of its engines with more tolerable cabs.

Baldwin did build some peaked-roof consolidations although I don't know that the D&RG got any. There aren't a whole lot of builder's photos for the class 56 engines, mainly just the well-known photograph of the D&RG "Silver Cliff." The late 70's/early 80's period was a transitional period in Baldwin construction from the peaked roofline to the rounded profile. Note the class 38 and 42 4-4-0's with their peaked roofs being built at basically the same time as these consolidations. By about 1881-2 or so all new construction was of rounded roofs except when otherwise specified by the customer. This change was shortly followed by the ~1882 adoption of cast rounded dome casings, giving new engines from that time a much different appearance than mechanically-identical engines built only a few years previous.

Crossheads were sometimes replaced but I wouldn't be shocked if the differences also reflect different production batches. The class 56 engines were acquired in separate orders over a period of several years, with the earliest of them sporting wagon top boilers and most the different orders having subtle variations in painting styles and whatnot. A limited number of them were also equipped with flange lubricators.