IanLK Wrote:
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> An amazing collection.
>
> I've always felt nitpicky about those spark
> arrestors with the flying Rio Grande on the
> tenders (I've seen just one (1) photo of a K-36
> running with both but several of K-37s), since the
> flying Grande scheme appeared right before the
> 480s and 90s got Anderson cyclones and thus quit
> wearing anything on their stacks. But now I just
> choose to believe all these charters are dated to
> that brief period around 1940-41 where this was
> possible, and they happen to be dragging all the
> most recently painted rolling stock. If there's
> another big freight charter though, it'd be fun to
> see the engines backdated to their 20s-30s
> appearance for once
I didn't really notice the stack screens until you mentioned it, but it was an issue to some. I remember doing our May 1993 charter, and we were allowed to delete those screens since it was coming out of winter and things would be moist. Engines sure looked good. I think on the last train we ran 488 stalled on the start of the 4% grade, and had to back-up and get another run. We were on the west side of the tracks(Sun side), right where the curve was across from the Lake Lobato. Anyway the engine did start a fire, and one of the guys from the Chama shop was there with a radio and took care of it for us. One perk we had was 3 of the tenders were already painted Rio Grande from the Craft Oct 1992 charter. Thus 2 of those engines were on the Rotary run(2 of 3 had the RG lettering), before our charter, and none had stack screens as I recall. Of course you can delete those screens if you have converted to oil like the D&S has done.
Greg
