Looking into when different D&RGW eras were:
Flying Grande (when did thid become the lettering on tenders/rolling stock?)
Moffet Tunnel Route/Royal Gorge
Others?
The Moffat tunnel route was never narrow gauge. It was built by the Denver, Notrhwestern and Pacific and opened in 1928.
Ray
http://www.drgw.net/
j. c. http://www.drgw.net/
Is there a particular location on that page that shows the different time periods for the locomotive lettering/numbering and heralds?
should be in the history section if he gets it up soon. other than that try the denver public library site railroad photos .
The "flying" Rio Grande logo came out around 1940-41, the same time with the RGS "sunrise" logo
The Royal Gorge Route herald came first. The Moffat Route came after the Rio Grande arranged trackage rights over the D&SL in the late 1930s. As was stated, the Flying Rio Grande came along circa 1940, with locos mostly being quickly repainted while some rolling stock never was repainted in the Flying herald.
While paint may provide some indication of eras. I think it's more the equipment that defined them. "Turn of the Century" refers to circa 1900, but is often used to describe the early era dominated by small Consolidations. The Rio Grande was mostly a Colorado road, with the Utah extension being the D&RG Western. The two roads eventually merged after 1900 bringing the era of NG expansion to a close while opening up the conversion of NG to SG. 20 ton boxcars were the standard.
In 1903, the Rio Grande began acquiring the 30-ton 3,000 series boxcars. These were rebuilt in the 1920s into their now familiar form as smaller and non-standard cars were retired. The first Mikados also came during the early 00s as outside-framed, compound locos. The design was considered huge at the time, but just set the stage for bigger Mikes during the late 20 and early 30s. The total of 45 2-8-2s of the 450, 470, 480, and 490 classes largely replaced the smaller power from the previous era on the road by the time their acquisition was completed in the 1930s.
So to me, the Rio Grande narrowgauge breaks down to three eras. The turn of the century (TOC) era ending in 1903 gave way to the modernization era from then until 1940; and this was followed by the Flying Rio Grande era that wound down the narrowgauge to abandonment of all but the Silverton and the part of the old NG main preserved by the C&TS.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
Mike,
This was the sort of detailed description I needed. Thank you.
Andrew