The study Joe refers to was by H. C. Murphy aand is dated May19-24, 1935.
A couple of his his recomendations were:
" Consider the possibilities of Dieselization which would effect a reduction of somewhere between twenty five and fifty thousand dollars in the operating loss on the line, provided electrical engineers can overcome severe limitations imposed upon traction motor design by the three foot gauge of the track.
Consider diverting all bridge traffic between Denver, Climax and Leadville to the D&RGW standard gauge; Discontinuing present passenger service; Converting freight engines from coal to oil burners, and operating tri-weekly mixed train serivce between Denver and Leadville, with supportive service on the Alma line, all trains to be handled by one engine. It would appear that
reduction in operation expenses should be considerably in excess of
revenue losses, although a thorough study may indicate otherwise.
The Ideal locomotive for this service, provided one could be designed to meet the limitations imposed upon traction motors by the narrow gauge, would be a diesel electric, figuring at least two 450 horse power machines of the end cab construction.
Two such engines to constitute the unit of power and to be handled by multiple unit control, in which wvent we would discontinue all passenger service, run tri weekly mixed train service daily, except Sunday, in each direction on a 16 hour schedule, Denver to Leadville, with a swing crew at Como to do the mine swithcing on the Alma line and furnish helper service at Boreas if needed. This would necessitate the minimum purchase of five such locomotives and would represent an outlay of 212 to 235 thousand dollars. We might reasonably expect these five engines, assuming traction motors large enough to utilize the horse power devoloped can be mounted on four axles, to reduce the operating expenses of the line 25 to 50 tousand dollars per year. It is extremely doubtful, however, if severe clearance limitations imposed by the narrow gauge an be overcome and still have sufficient power in the motor units."