Re: Cumbres, November 25, 1932

over the years K-36's and K-37's were baised out of both salida and alamosa genrally the37's were wherever the most traffic was and this was not entierly becaus the 37 had more power it was becaus 37's were a little more difficult to deal with on the fact that the boilers were built before the big builders had a scientific handel on locomotive building as a result the throtles on the 37's were kinda squirly and had a tendancy to pop open so when not under maximum load they could jump when you started them and would result in the hack gettin a good yank so the tail end crews bitched and the manage ment caved and began the practice of moving the classes around baised on traffic conditions at any given time ( when 497 was rebuilt the durango crews and manage ment found this out and reworked the throtle so it is now mutch more dependable and well behaved this did not change the engins inflexibility weight and the fact that it is overpowerd for that line whitched precipitated its trade to the C&TS )
hope this helps
stoker