Re: K37 dog houses and backup lights

Olaf Rasmussen Wrote:
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> The recent posts about 493's restored dog house
> led to a bit of "trivia pursuit" about the
> relationship between the dog houses and the backup
> lights on the last four K37s in freight service.
> Engines 492 and 498 had small backup lights
> centered on the back of the tender.
>
> [attachment 66556 scan0030.jpg]
>
> [attachment 66557 scan0016.jpg]
>
> Engines 493 and 497 had large backup lights
> mounted on the fireman's side of the tender
>
> [attachment 66558 scan0055.jpg]
>
> [attachment 66559 scan0007.jpg]
>
> I only saw 499 steaming in the Durango roundhouse,
> and never saw it working a freight, so I don't
> know about it's backup light. Makes one wonder if
> all K37s used to have the big lights and that some
> of them received small centered lights after
> accidents or other incidents. I do think 493 looks
> great with the restored dog house and the
> side-mounted backup light.

This is a loaded question Olaf but here is some answers. Only a few of the K-37's had large pyle tender lights in the 40's. Originally these were mounted on the rear of the tender similar to what you see on a K-36. 497, 496, 494, 492, and 491 from my research all had one in this style at various times. In the late 40's when all the K's got tender lights the 490, 491, 493, 495 all received the large pyle tender light mounted on the firemans side of the tender next to the doghouse as seen on 493 today. 491 lost her tender in 1953 when it was set aside and took the 496's tender so its large tender light went away. The 497 also inherited the 490's tender and still has it today along with the large tender light. So from 1961 to retirement you would have seen the 497 with that style of tender light. The rest of the K-37's received the smaller style light mounted on the rear of the tender deck. Interestingly the 480's original tender light was like one of the smaller lights mounted on the K-37's. I believe in 1951 or 52 it got the bigger style. Hope this helps clarify the who, what, when, and where of K-37 tender lights.

William
aka drgwk37



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/10/2020 09:56PM by drgwk37.