Re: 493 Arriving in Durango

Not the 476's whistle, but I visited a brass foundry in Santa Rosa, Calif. back about 1968 and saw a beautiful whistle sitting atop the main building. It was hooked up to a steam source from within the foundry. The office was in another building and there were a number of pictures of D&RGW narrow gauge steam adorning the walls. The owner of that place boasted that he and some buddies "liberated" the whistle off one of the dead-lined engines in Alamosa. Several of the engines sat out in the open and were fair pickings for anyone with a pipe wrench. Some parts stolen off engines have made their way back to use where they belong, but many of us may know people who have these items that really don't belong in their dens or model railroad rooms.