THE C&S / R.G.S 74 - A BIT OF HISTORY...
C&S #74 ( Later R.G.S. #74. ) started her long, ( and
somewhat infamous )
career back in 1898 when the Brooks Locomotive Works of Dunkirk, New York
delivered three steam locomotives to the Colorado & Northwestern Railroad,
which operated in and west of Boulder, Colorado. She was the first,
becoming their the road number 30, and she was destined to survive three
different owners to finally become the #74 on the Rio Grande Southern.
All three were equipped with the "inboard style" Stephensen
Valve Gear, but #74
was created with a canted-chest slide valve arrangement of dubious design,
which would plague her throughout her long career. The reason being, all slide
valves required "Valve Oil" to keep them working; But the canted cylinders
allowed that oil to run off towards the low side, with the result that they
required noticeably more of the precious stuff than "management" allowed for,
which more often than not put her crews crosswise with the bean counters. On
more than one occasion an unsuspecting engineman came close to getting "bucked
out of the cab" because of that recalcitrant valve gear !
At one time Bill White had a site called
"Riograndesouthern.com" where you
could read a great history of the # 74, authored by
Mike Trent,
But the site is no longer no line..
Mike's story went far beyond the scope of this site, and
included photos of
the three "sister" engines that all ended up on the C&S, plus photos of her
during her final working years on the R.G.S. It was highly recommended
reading!
A portion of it read something like this: "By 1909 the
C&N had fallen on hard times, being resurrected as the
Denver, Boulder & Western. Which lasted another ten years, but according to
Mike, "No amount of creative and ingenious publicity could overcome raging
floodwaters in Boulder Canyon, and in 1919, the line ceased operations. .
."
In 1920 the C&S acquired the #30 #31 and #32. It was then that they were
classified "B-4-F" and renumbered #74, #75, and #76.
Over time, all would become "C&S-ized," and in 1926, the C&S
Shops replaced the
"inboard" Stephensen Gear with an in-house designed "Walschearts" valve gear.
The idea being to help fix the problem of the Johnson bar being so difficult to
manage and also correct the excessive wear to the existing valve gear.
Unfortunately, this modification failed to address the lubrication problems
associated with the canted-chest slide valve design, so those continued to
plague number 74 throughout the rest of her career.
Copyright 2001 - 2021 - P-B-L - All Rights Reserved
|
