Re: RGS, SN locomotives on the D&RGW

The various logging operations along he D&RG(W)/RGS were another source of foreign power movements. Most of the lumber RR locomotives were secondhand from the Rio Grande, but there was more exotic equipment as well.

The Hallack & Howard interchanged with the D&RG at La Madera, NM from 1914-22. Its roster included 1 Climax and 4 ex-C&S B-4-Bs with boiler-top cross-mounted air tanks.

There was a tangle of associated logging RRs around Lumberton/Dulce/Pagosa Springs area; for brevity's sake I'll refer to it all as NMLCo. Their roster was mainly ex-Rio Grande C-class, but included 2 Shays and 2 Lima 2-8-0s that look quite distinct in Colorado. Later they picked up an 0-6-0 Porter for McPhee.

Following Joe's logic in the 2nd post, it is quite possible that these locomotives were delivered under their own power. The C-class could be retired and replaced rather than overhauled, but I expect the D&RG(W) provided servicing for H&H / NMLCo locomotives which prompted similar mainline movements to the SN/RGS locos that traversed the D&RG(W) for servicing.

The NMLCo shifted locomotives and rolling stock around various camps in the Pagosa/Lumberton area. This certainly would have included movements along the Rio Grande's 4th Div. mainline and the Pagosa branch. When the NMLCo shifted from this region to McPhee/Glencoe in the mid/late 1920s, it is fascinating to envision the locomotives and rolling stock traveling along the mainline from Pagosa Springs to Dolores.

Daydreaming: I imagine a train with a Lima 2-8-0 pulling logging flats loaded with donkey engines and camp houses, and a long string of short squat skeleton log cars, perhaps meeting a K-28 with train 115/116 at a mainline siding. I wish we could send all the wonderful RGS 41 photo/videographers back to the mid-1920s to document yet another unique movement.