Steve,
I agree. The 40 and 44 were wonderful locomotives to serve time on. The windows are large and stow out of the way. If the cab gets too hot, you can rest your butt on the arm rest and hang out of the window for a bit of relief.
I remember one guy asking me if I liked firing an outside frame locomotive. I told him that it was a great job for the summer. He replied "You must like Rock and Roll, then". I told him that it beat the alternative of no locomotive at all.... He couldn't argue with that one.
The 44 used a D&RGW five chime whistle rather than the tall brass 4 chime of the 40. This whistle was a replacement for the 44's original whistle which was stolen on her trip through Mexico to the US.
I remember when we gave a winter train ride in Central City to the Rocky Mountain Railroad Club. Roy Breffle was working as the Engineer. Roy looked like everybodys stereotype engineer. He had an outgoing personality to the general public, and was (as Harry DeVore called him) "Pear Shaped", and had show white hair and a small white moustache.
The Rocky Clubbers were taking lots of photos of Roy when Mac Poor asked him "Are you a South Park man?". You could see the disappointment on Mac's face when Roy replied "No, I work for the "Q"." I wonder if Mac ever had that roll of film developed. I remember that the snow was deep and it was COLD.
Another time we had the Colorado Image of a Texan on board. He had the ten gallon hat, boots, and a spangly beaded suit. After he gave us a dirty look when he got on the locomotive and got a smudge on his jacket, he introduced himself and said "Howdy, y'all, Ah'm from Texas." I told him that I wasn't surprised. He then said "Son, did you know that you can get on a train in Texas and ride all night, and when you get up in the Mornin' you'll still be in Texas?". I replied "We have slow trains in Colorado, too... We just don't brag about them."
In Silver Plume, I was busy lettering the locomotives from the Colorado Central livery to GB&L. There were a couple of young ladies who were looking over the locomotive. I was explaining, as I usually did, how a steam locomotive works. I had an open can of Aluminum Paint and a flat lettering brush in Hand. I excused myself for a moment, turned around and put a "C-22" on the cab side. I turned around and resumed the conversation when one of the young ladies exclaimed "You didn't just paint that, did you?". I said that I did and was promptly accused of being a liar. I told her that if she didn't believe me that she should touch it. When she left, I was touching up a couple of fingerprints and she was looking for some water (which we didn't have available at that time) to wash the Aluminum paint off of her fingertips.
Of course, your senes of humor grows a bit crasser as the season wears on... Like the time that a particularly obnoxious tourist left his video camera running on a tripod in the middle of the tracks. We came out of the cut and off the Pin Truss Bridge. When I saw the camera I suddenly became preoccupied with the injector. Roy stopped the locomotive as the tripod began disappearing under the pilot. I thought that it was great fun. Bref was pissed, but he got over it.
There are all kinds of memories, almost all good, from my time up there. It is a time that we felt that we were battling impossible odds. We had fun, felt that we were establishing a real attraction and in the lull between passengers, worked on the equipment and upgrading, painting and lettering everything in sight. Yes, there were times that we had scheduled departure times that we sat in the depot and didn't run due to no passengers. There were many times those first years that we would run a trip for one or two families. My, my how things have changed. Thanks to the hard work of the Ashby's and the GTL. I am convinced that if it were not for the fact that Ed Gerlits, who is a railroad fan, was the CHS on-site rep, that the CHS might have considered shutting the operation down for lack of patronage. Bye the way, Lindsey didn't work for the Loop at that time. He was an Engineer for Marathon Oil and drew no salary from the railroad. Rosa was busy teaching school and Leah was in grade school.
Rick
