R.G.S C-19 Class #40
Circa the 1940's era.
~ Revised July 19, 2016 ~


There's a photo in one of the many books devoted to the R.G.S. that depicts one of its locos crossing a trestle near Ophir which was taken from an angle similar to this. ( Somebody R.G.S. aficionado will undoubtedly be able to help me add more specifics to this text. Hint. Hint.)

Well, we didn't have a trestle. You'll have to "imagineer" that yourself. But we couldn't resist the shot because it shows yet another demonstration of the talents of our good friend and long time associate James T. "Jimmy" Booth Jr. It looks so natural you may have even missed it, but have another look inside that partially filled coal bunker. Rusty, isn't it? Which is the way these things get all too quickly due to the high sulphur content of coal, which when rained upon, leaches out as sulfuric acid!

The lighting for this photo could have been better, but viewfinders on these newfangled digital cameras are about as low-res as you can get. ( We've been promised a video cable that will enable us to use a TV monitor for setup in the future, but for now it's endless trips from the photo room in our shop to my office, And what with all the rain we've had this early winter, like almost two months now with only two days of sunshine, and I just flat got tired of running.)

So, like the missing trestle you'll also have to imagineer the missing rivets on the tender and the missing boiler bands on the loco's boiler.

Noteworthy locomotive-specific details visible in this photo include

  • The mismatched steam and sand domes, sort of "plucked" from different eras.
  • A wood framed cab with a "Riveted" Steel overlay beneath the windows.
  • A straight running board with no air tank. This was unusual in that before her 1940 rebuilding #40 always had a raised running board on this side with an air tank hung beneath it.
  • D&RGW style oil type marker lamps.
  • That "lead" or "pilot" truck that sets 'way too far back to look "right". ( We think this is yet another thing that MAKES this model! )
  • The "wrought iron" Coal "boards" instead of wood ones.
  • The wooden tool box atop the tenders' rear deck.
  • The great looking wood decking that runs crosswise for the length of the tender, yet just barely visible is the metal overlay at the front that extends rearward to cover the area between the tenders' "water legs". And yes, that metal sheathing has recessed "screw heads" on it, for those wondering how it was held in place.
  • A Headlight straight out of the early days of steam, albeit electrified at this point in its life.

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