How clean

[Anonymous]

Hi guys,
How clean, or dirty, were the standard run of the mill loco's operating on the narrow guage Rio Grande. I have a lot of old shots from the internet and my screen saver shows a C16 backing down a string of gons at a mine and the loco looks very clean. Was there regulations about washing the engines down or was it if and when? Lots of corrosive muck shoots out of an engines stack so was this washed off when they took on water or..................?
I'm asking this because I want to 'weather' another couple of locos but Gail likes them as they are, so do I give them a slight 'wash' to grime them up a bit or would it be dust and grime hanging off every rivet. I suspect Gail will win this one but I might just manage to grime the black loco's up without her really noticing!
Cheers,
Kim
[tup]

[John Busby]

Hi Kim
Steam Loco conditon varied conciderably depending on age when last overhaul and the financial state of the railway.
It is possable to find OY!! DON'T TOUCH THE DUCO GRR!! and Oh my god look at the state of that on the same railway.
Of course if the railway is run on a piece of string and some chewing gum it is more interesting to try and create working delapitasion but partners for some reason don't like that.
regards John

[vsmith]

Depends on the era.

19th cent railroads, even small ones took great pride in there engines and passenger cars, and were often kept "spit n polish" clean, however , this was like pushing a rock up a hill, railroading is an inherently filthy business, especially if your coal fired, coal dust gets everywhere, cinders, ash, dust kicked up from the roadbed, weather, etc. could make even the cleanest lokie look a real mess by the end of a run.

Later into the 20th cent when budgets got tighter, and particularly during the depression, maintanence and "spit n polish" became job #309 out of 310 items on the To-Do lists of railroads around the country, it became increasing clear that it didnt matter how dirty an engine was, as long as the engine was servicable.

Look at pics from the end of renivue service and you'll see some grimy engines, beat to hell cars, and not the best of maintained ROWs...

[Anonymous]

Thanks for that, it's a bit awkward when you live in a few thousand miles away from your favourite RR location. On the whole our railways in the steam era were kept fairly clean, especially passenger steamers, but there was always a grimy one around somewhere. I can well imagine that the stock got in a heck of a mess in the depression era with funds tight but I do suppose there were plenty of proud crews who tried to keep everything clean, just glad they where working and earning.
Cheers,
Kim
[tup]

[tangerine-jack]

I live very close to the Norfolk Southern trackage and corporate HQ and I've seen that most of thier locos and equipment are very clean and well kept. BUT, even for this Fortune 500 company, there are the grungy beat to H**l engines and rolling stock freely roaming the rails.

I guess it just depends on what the wife will eventualy get........................


[oX)]