I could tell you about steam in Middletown. My grandfather went from locomotive to stationary as the first, 1st class stationary engineer in Ohio. He built a plant for Sorg Paper. It provided heat and electricity to downtown Middletown. It still provided heat to South Main until the paper mill burnt last year. I would like to know if somehow tne power plant survived the fire.

A steam locomotive is the closest that any man made machine gets to being alive. It’s smells, it shakes, chugs and whistles.

I didn't know she had 497's whistle.

@@alexfarrell5533 for a brief period 484 and 488 swapped whistles

+jayfmiller Thanks. 488 for some reason had a very high pitched dynamo last season when compared to the other engines. Towards the end of the season is was hard to listen to that engine on the coaling tower web cams because of the high pitch. It's not as high pitched in person though. Either that or I just got used to it over time.

+Austin Goodwin in 2008 I was fortunate to do a cab ride on steam locomotive #735 on the mainline trip in Shizuoka Prefecture in Japan. The dynamo on that was also high pitched.

I'm pretty sure it'll be back someday, but for now they should focus on restoring 483

Dominic Korzelius And what are they planning to do with #483 besides #497?

I believe either cosmetic, or adding it to the active roster i guess

Dominic Korzelius Maybe

Dominic Korzelius 483 will not be restored at the C&TS but will be traded for 478 at the Durango and Silverton.

Research the species of tree, then view its color characteristics.

+piebstrains1 The train only goes about 15 MPH, it's pretty easy to get to a location in front of it.

They don't really need it any more now that the bridge has been repaired after the fire. Before, however, it was found during reconstruction that the bridge piers had been undercut by the river, so I guess it was fortunate they continued the old D&RG regulation. :-)

Those locks weigh 100 tons so it pushes the scales of the bridge to the point of if they tried to move both engines over it by-by bridge

Justin Ramsey it’s 463

Pc Principal Oh it is, I’m sorry, that’s my bad.

Pc Principal I have just not had a good past couple of weeks because my mind is shot from this quarantine. I haven’t felt like myself since.

Pc Principal I hope you are able to hear at least what I’m pointing out.

The reason is because the 463 is a much smaller engine than the standard K-36 and has less horsepower. With 463 being the road engine for the day a helper was needed to lift the train up the pass. 463 can handle at the most 6 cars up the 4.5% grade on a good day and the day this was filmed, rain and snow was a definite threat up on the line making conditions less than ideal for traction. The day before the daily train had issues climbing the hill due to wet rails and arrived 30 minutes late to Osier.

Austin Goodwin oh I see. That makes sense. Thanks

We rode it on opening day of 2016 (you can see me and my grandson on the tourist car in one of the clips taken that day) and had two of the larger engines as far as Cumbres. I was told that on opening day, and again near July 4, the practice is to keep selling seats until an hour or so before train time or until they run out of equipment at Chama. One of the larger "K" class I was told could handle 7 cars but if more than that was required it would double head to Cumbres. Quite a sight and we will be back on May 31 this year with our grand-daughter - she graduates HS in Wylie, TX on 5/27, opening day this year. One of my older friends at church and I are looking at opening day 2018.

What you're referring to is known as the doghouse and it's where the brakeman would sit due to limited space in the locomotive's cab. The doghouse was fitted to the K-28, K-36, and K-37 classes of locomotives on the narrow gauge with only one K-27 (453) being equipped with one. They also were steam heated for winter use.

Austin h

Shelter for brakeman that gave him protection form elements while actively watching train and responding from forward positions and often many mid train helpers.

The bridge was built so long ago it wasn't designed to support the weight of two bigger K class locomotives so one has to be cut off and sent ahead of the train

The original bridge was very severely damaged in a fire in 2010. The original bridge was made of wrought iron. The main beams were replaced at that time (2012). Wrought iron is no longer available for this purpose. They did not replace the bents (hold up the bridge) as they were not damaged. Cost of course is always an issue and historic accuracy. Long story short - It was rebuilt to roughly the original specs (modern standards applied). This is a very interesting article that helps understand what happened. www.apti.org/clientuploads/publications/2014/Rutz%20article%20for%20web.pdf