Hammered locomotives

RGS 41 also has a number of frame breaks . The shop forman at Knott's told me that the 41 was far more hammered than D&RGW 340 . I heard lots of the frame problems on the smaller RGS engines was from bucking snow and too many derailments . D&RGW 476 developed a serious problem with the cylinder block working in the frame due to a frame wedge falling out in the 1979 or '80 season, loosening the cylinder bolts . That is the big reason it was retired . I was told it is fixable , if and when the railroad wants to underwrite this huge and very expensive repair . This may have been due to a bad derailment up at Silverton in the late 1970s . I do not know about a bent frame .
Despite a lot of mishaps , 473 always rode well . 499 was a favored engine . Some enginemen claimed it was the BEST engine on the narrow gauge . Alamosa crews tried to keep it on their side of the railroad . One feature that was popular was its snowplow ,that could wing rocks easily off the track . The Coxo derailment was due to slack action . There is a long flat spot there ,and the engineer may have released the air too early with a long train causing a run-in ferocious enough to flip the tender on its side as well as piling up a couple of the cars in the front of the train . Engine was leaning ,but stayed upright . My personal favorites ? I really liked 484 .It steamed great and had few problems , except a persistent problem with balky injectors . 483 ,despite being wrecked real bad in '58 ,was another great locomotive that steamed well and ran square ,even when the running gear was worn out . One interesting note . Locomotives went in and out of being favored depending on when it was last shopped . Once ,telling an old-timer that I liked 484 ,he remembered it as a "poor engine" .