Earl, how are you ?
The U.S. Government "requisitioned" the entire Class K-28 from the D&RGW ."Requisition" meant a forced sale of equipment ,land or materiel for the war effort . The Grande negotiated to keep three engines (473,476,478) to hold down remaining branch line an d passenger service . Though no one is around who knows the details , it was my understanding that the D&RGW was reluctant to see them go . With the end of passenger service over Marshall Pass in 1940 ,and the abandonement of the Santa Fe branch in 1941 , this made five or six engines surplus . I also heard that the Grande looked into bringing back #479 from the dock at Tacoma in 1946 ,but decided against it after learning of the engine's poor condition . The sale of the two Class K-27 to the NdeM happened in late spring of 1942 ,The requisition of the K-28s happened in early August . The remaining K-27s were all committed to branch lines th at could not take anything bigger than that class .
The U.S. Government also "requisitioned" the entire Silverton branch the same year .Old Man Chase ,president of the Shenandoah-Dives Mining Company ,convinced the War Department that his silver mine was actually a lead and zinc mine as well ,and was vital to the war effort , thus saving the obscure branch for posterity . An intersting ownership aside : as noted on this board earlier ,the engines sent to Skagway in 1942 were lettered "U.S.A"(army) ,and not W.P.&Y.R. A lot of other stuff w as "requisitioned " during the Second World War ,including a upscale boys' school in the Jemez Mountains called Los Alamos ,a lot of farmland in Eastern Washington and the Tennessee Valley and a wearhouse full of processed uranium in New York City ,that was sold mainly as a hardener for dental fillings and for glow-in-the-dark watch dials .
