As Cowles recounted, 497 was the cause of one of the biggest fiasco the railroad ever faced regarding stranded passengers. 497 also caused a similar problem on the Silverton when it knocked out a chunk of rail at Mp 481.5 (Broken Bridge curve). According to John Bush, this engine's main problem was there was something wrong in a crude wheel centering device on the #1 driver. Him and Jack Cmapbell adjusted it a couple of times, but the engine soon went back to its evil ways, basically knocking out every sharp curve on the railroad. Do all of the K-37s do this? Probably not, though old-timers warned us these engines could be hard on track.
Certainly, track conditions on the C&TS are not what they were 50 years ago, when 100 section men in 4 sections did year-around maintenance on the railroad. At this time ,the D&RGW took the superelevation out of a lot of curves. I was told that after the "San Juan" was discontinued, there was less need to run the trains at speed, and this move decreased track wear on the inside rail. Since many, many westbound trains were at tonnage, slogging along all night at speeds under 10 mph, the difference was not felt. I believe the K-37s ran just fine until the superelevation was removed,and certainly the deterioration of the roadbed from Chama to Antonito made the situation worse. I have to say, when I could actually see the track move under 497, though,it was plain this engine had problems nobody had a solution for.