Trains.com

Narrow Gauge Articulateds

2471 views
10 replies
1 rating 2 rating 3 rating 4 rating 5 rating
  • Member since
    May 2019
  • 1,314 posts
Narrow Gauge Articulateds
Posted by BEAUSABRE on Monday, July 18, 2022 9:33 AM

Two rare birds here. The first is Rio Grande #483 after its conversion by Alamosa Shops after David Moffat bought the D&RG and merged it with his highly successful D&SL route to Salt Lake City to form the Rio Grande, which was later merged with the WP to Oakland to form the DRG&WP  The second is a shot of one of C&O's (note the trademark "flying pump front end") "Small Simon" simple 2-6-6-2's prior to the installation of an Elesco feedwater heater taken on its Little Creek Division narrow gauge in West Virginia. They burned oil produced from coal to avoid forest fires - West Virginia had a big lumber industry                                                                               

  • Member since
    July 2016
  • 2,547 posts
Posted by Backshop on Monday, July 18, 2022 10:45 AM

Are those photoshopped?

  • Member since
    May 2019
  • 1,314 posts
Posted by BEAUSABRE on Monday, July 18, 2022 12:54 PM

I didn't photoshop either one

  • Member since
    February 2005
  • From: Vancouver Island, BC
  • 23,321 posts
Posted by selector on Monday, July 18, 2022 1:02 PM

I don't think they are manipulated images, but there are artifacts that show up above the domes and in the second photo toward the left side....white squares.

  • Member since
    July 2016
  • 2,547 posts
Posted by Backshop on Monday, July 18, 2022 2:19 PM

The Rio Grande #483 is a 2-8-2. It appears that it was just twinned.  It has the same airtank over both sets of drivers. The second locomotive is obviously an NdeM one.  You can tell by the numbering font.  I think someone was having fun.

  • Member since
    May 2019
  • 1,314 posts
Posted by BEAUSABRE on Monday, July 18, 2022 2:45 PM

Man, people, please read the captions. David Moffat buying the Rio Grande ... the Denver and Salt Lake was far from being highly successful and was a marginal line that never got anywhere near Salt Lake City and, jeeze, #483 has a ludicrously large boiler for a totally inadequate firebox...Rio Grande merging with the WP to form the Denver, Rio Grande and Western Pacific... C&O having an oil fired narrow gauge division...It's possible to liquify coal (Fischer-Tropsch Process developed in the early 1900's) but totally uneconomic except in extreme circumstances like WW2 Germany. And doesn't everyone know the East Broad Top was the sole surving major ng line in the East...I thought everyone would get a good chuckle and call me out - "What have you been smoking, buddy" - I was and am surprised...

  • Member since
    May 2019
  • 1,314 posts
Posted by BEAUSABRE on Monday, July 18, 2022 6:30 PM

                                                           
  • Member since
    January 2015
  • 2,623 posts
Posted by kgbw49 on Tuesday, July 19, 2022 6:50 AM

BEAU, I did get a good chuckle out of these so it was not all for naught!

The Rio Grande 2-8-8-2 with the long small boiler looks like a centipede. I could imagine that thing bending around the curves in Animas Canyon like something out of an early Walt Disney cartoon!

One wonders, though, if there would be enough lateral clearance in Animas Canton for the N de M 2-6-6-2 to make it to Silverton and back? That would be kind of a fun ride in an alternate universe.

  • Member since
    May 2019
  • 1,314 posts
Posted by BEAUSABRE on Tuesday, July 19, 2022 9:46 AM

Thank you! As far as #483 bending around curves, if it had a felxible boiler ala the ATSF, it just might

  • Member since
    March 2016
  • From: Burbank IL (near Clearing)
  • 13,476 posts
Posted by CSSHEGEWISCH on Tuesday, July 19, 2022 10:04 AM

Somebody was browsing through his copy of "Articulated Locomotives" and decided to have some funWhistling

The daily commute is part of everyday life but I get two rides a day out of it. Paul
  • Member since
    July 2020
  • 1,517 posts
Posted by pennytrains on Tuesday, July 19, 2022 6:57 PM

Well, there's a Tweetsie.  Maybe you can call your Rio Grande doubled loco a "Tootsie" because it looks like a Tootsie Roll on wheels!  Laugh

Big Smile  Same me, different spelling!  Big Smile

Join our Community!

Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.

Search the Community

Newsletter Sign-Up

By signing up you may also receive occasional reader surveys and special offers from Trains magazine.Please view our privacy policy