[atsf37l]

The Silverton Mixed wasn't always in the charge of K's. 2-8-0's held sway here for forty years or more until the rail was to the point where K-27s could run there and until the K-28s, K-36s and K-37s were plentiful enough to bump the 27s off the mainline.

Here we find C-19 number 340 in charge of Train 461 with C-16 220 helping on the point as the pair tackle the 2.5% with a good sized train. Included are a couple of cars of road oil for the highway department in Silverton and a few cars of cut lumber so we're a little heavier than the usual string of empty boxcars for the mines. Not so much we can't make the schedule with the pulling power of the two engines though.

Thanks to Captain Bazza for the locomotives and caboose (originally), Jonathan Lewis and Natty Jim for the boxcars (at least they started out as theirs :D ) and Tim Muir for what used to be Sumpter Valley flats and narrow frame tanks - I never leave anything alone! :D Plop them down on Charlie Leveritt's Silverton Branch Route and you have a winning combination!

We catch the train just out of Hermosa, hitting the toughest part of the grade, up through Lake Shalona and on into Rockwood and across the High Line of the Animas River, then into the station stop at Tacoma. Enjoy the ride!

[atsf37l]

Part two....

[atsf37l]

Part 3....

[timmuir]

Wow, Herb, fantastic series there, and nice-looking consist too. Are you going to upload those repainted cars? I'm especially interested in the tanks :D

[captain_bazza]

Hmmm, time I got over my preoccupation with outside frames, eh? Fine screenies, thanks.

:D

PS I can't wait to get my new system up and running so I can loadup a parcel of these great looking NG routes.

This post has been edited by captain_bazza: 08 May 2006 - 09:41 PM

[atsf37l]

captain_bazza, on May 8 2006, 09:34 PM, said:

Hmmm, time I got over my preoccupation with outside frames, eh? Fine screenies, thanks.

:D

PS I can't wait to get my new system up and running so I can loadup a parcel of these great looking NG routes.

Ready to drop inside frame .s files into my folders at any time. :D Sure could use an additional one with a box headlight, since many of these engines carried them. :(

Hard to tell since the aluminum lettering didn't show on the pan film of the day but this is the 220 in 1923. Photo courtesy of DPL.

[captain_bazza]

I know it's an optical illusion, but that train appears it's meandered off track onto a mountain goat trail. Heh, heh. :D

[atsf37l]

Poor man's ashpit at Embudo. :D

There's an old tale about the C&S of a train over one of their passes with three engines, bucking snow in a driving blizzard that came across a huge snow covered boulder in their path. On examination it turned out to be a haystack. They had been plowing across a farmer's solidly frozen field since the last iced up road crossing! They gingerly backed the outfit back onto the rails without so much as placing a single re-rail frog, chipped out the crossing and continued on their way. The only difference the engineers said they felt was that the ride was smoother after the crossing! :D

[Sandy River Tom]

Good story there, Herb :(

First time I've heard it told about a Colorado NG RR.

In the Maine version, a Sandy River Plow train stalls-out after plowing across an open field for 100 yards.

Makes a good story though :(

[captain_bazza]

Off topic, but that yarn reminds me of an 'urban legend' regarding an airforce patrol over Greenland during WW2. I don't know which airforce was involved.

Apparently this Catalina FB (I've flown in one) was on patrol during WW2 over the Greenland icecap in cloud when the machine started slowing down and finally stopping. Mystified, the pilot cut the engines and aircraft appeared to be suspended in the clouds.

When the clouds abated they discovered the Cat had landed gently on the icecap, which was slanted everso slightly uphill in the direction of flight. What had apparently happened was the pilot didn't account for the uphill slope of the high icecap and that the Cat had gently alighted and was in fact sliding along nicely until friction took over. Being in cloud at the time they didn't know this......

Now, I can place no credence on this yarn, but it's just possible it happened.

:(