Elvas Tower: D&RGW K-37 491 and 492 - Elvas Tower

Delighted with the success of the K-36 2-8-2’s of 1925, the Denver & Rio Grande Western sought to duplicate these ten locomotives with a more economical solution than ordering a new group of engines from Baldwin. The engineering department noted the overall size similarity between the K-36 boiler and that of their own standard gauge Class C-41 2-8-0 engines built by Baldwin in 1902 and decided to use those boilers and the tenders of the engines, along with new running gear from Baldwin, and create their own outside frame narrow gauge Mikados. The result rolled out of Burnham Shops in Denver as new Class K-37. Slightly larger than their K-36 sisters, they carried five pounds more pressure in their boilers and 900 pounds more tractive effort. The first engines converted were No.’s 490 through 495 in 1928. These were followed up with 496 through 499 in 1930. The original standard gauge tenders on these locomotives run on standard gauge trucks with their wheelsets re-gauged for narrow gauge track.

Eight of the ten K-37 locomotives still exist but none are operational. 491 is at the Colorado Railroad Museum, four are with the Cumbries & Toltec Scenic Railroad, two are with the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, and one is on display at the Royal Gorge.. The remaining two were scrapped by the D&RGW, one after being damaged when it rolled into a turntable pit.

These models were built from Al Armatige plans in the July/Aug, Sept/Oct, and Nov/Dec, 1997 issues of the Narrow Gauge Gazette, from pictures taken by myself and Herb Kelsey, and from pictures in the K-37 Quick Pic Book. They are made to represent the locomotives as they appeared in the early 1940’s after the advent of the Flying Rio Grande lettering scheme.

These models were built by a team of five people. Howard Saunders did the final physics adjustments and file compression, Herb Kelsey supplied technical data and performed much testing and inspection, Tom Werb assigned a crew to operate it, and Derek Miller provided the sound files and helped with the technical inspection. I also received much encouragement. from the for-mentioned individuals, as well as from many posters at Elvas Tower.

To install these locomotives, download the zip files to a location of your choice, unzip them and copy the K37_491, K37_492 and K37-CrewCar folders to your Trainset folder. These locomotives use a FreightAnim for some of the details so they require a "CrewCar" to put a crew into the cabs. When creating consists, insert the "K37 Crew Car" between the engine and the tender.

Enjoy, Bill