Class 300 / C-17 (Locobase 6824)

Data from D&RGW 12 - 1937 Folio 10 and 1 - 1952 Folio L Locomotive Diagrams supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive collection. Baldwin works numbers were 8563, 8564, 8725, 8629, and 8632 (417, 418, 419, 421, 422 and ultimately 300, 303, 304, 301, 302).

Smudges in the 1937 edition obscured the weight data; fortunately, the 1952 edition still preserved the information and it was clear enough to read.

The illustration shows a straight boiler with two domes shaped like classical urns, a slightly flared stack and big, oil-fired headlight. The small drivers were unevenly spaced with the space between the first two 15" smaller than the other gaps.

http://www.drgw.net/info/index.php?n=Main.C-17 (26 May 2006) says that two other locomotives grouped in the class were the ex-Utah Central #1 narrow-gauger, regauged in 1901, renumbered several times, converted back to narrow gauge in 1918 and ultimately numbered 305 in 1924. It was scrapped in 1927. Great Falls of Canada #3 had a similar history as it migrated to the Utah Central before 1898. It was ultimately scrapped in July 1935.

Class C-25-112 (Locobase 6818)

Data from D&RGW 12 - 1937 Folio 10 Locomotive Diagrams supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive collection. Works number was 21757 in March 1903.

Locobase suspects that this locomotive didn't operate at 170 psi when it first went into service with the Crystal River. The CR became the Crystal River & San Juan in 1910

Also the firebox's syphon (11 sq ft) was probably a later addition, probably after it became the property of the narrow-gauge component of the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railway in 1916.

Class C-26S (Locobase 3045)

The high boiler pressure and tall drivers (relatively speaking) distinguish this set of D&RG Consolidations from the C28s delivered from the same builder in the same years. The C26 dimensions made them the most powerful 2-8-0s on the line for years. According to Metcalf, 4 were delivered with 47" drivers, which boosted tractive effort to 27,778 lb (Oddly, engine weight seems to decreased to 112,000 lb.). By Metcalf's calculations, these engines served their Colorado lines for an average of 36 years.

Bruce A. Metcalf's Colorado Consols web site, Data from D&RGW 12 -1937 Folio 10 Locomotive Diagrams supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive collection.

Class C-28S (Locobase 1453)

Group of very small standard-gauge Consolidations that ran on light track until the late 1930s in some instances. (According to Metcalf, the class average was 42 years of service.) Engine numbers reflect D&RGW renumbering in 1924.

http://www.sound.net/~drgw/history/drg2.htm, data from D&RGW 12 -1937 Folio 10 Locomotive Diagrams supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive collection.

See also Bruce A. Metcalf's Colorado Consols web site.

Class C-38 (Locobase 3948)

This small batch of Consolidations was reported with little fanfare in a 1900 Railroad Gazette (Vol XXXII, Vol 36) article. The review did comment that these locomotives "rank wel up in the list of modern heavy freight locomotives", a mysterious claim given the relatively modest dimensions of this workmanlike design. See the 1901 C-40 entry for a nearly identical cross-compound variant.

Class C-39 (Locobase 1458)

http://www.sound.net/~drgw/history/drg2.htm . Data from D&RGW 12 -1937 Folio 10 Locomotive Diagrams supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive collection. Works numbers were 26006, 26024, 26039, 26050, 26069-26070, 26102, 26108 in July 1905; 26154-26155 in August.

Similar to the 1902 C-38s (probably duplicates except for slightly higher boiler pressure). Retired over a decade from 1936-1946. Engine numbers reflect D&RGW renumbering in 1924.

Class C-40 (Locobase 4126)

Massive cross-compounds built for the RGW and profiled in Railroad Gazette 28 June 1901. Very similar simple-expansion engines had been procured a year earlier. RG comments on the deceptive scale of these engines, their real bulk being apparent only when one compares it to an older design. Three items that had shrunk to accommodate the larger boiler in the loading gauge were the dome, the stack, and the headlight. What RG didn't predict was just how much smaller all three would get as engines grew still larger.

These cross-compounds had a very large cylinder volume, with the LP cylinder still not large enough to handle all the HP steam. Although it's not clear from Locobase's sources, these probably reverted to simple expansion in just a few years.

Class C-40 (Locobase 1459)

Data from D&RGW 12 -1937 Folio 10 Locomotive Diagrams supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive collection. See also http://www.sound.net/~drgw/history/drg2.htm

Preceded the C-38/C-39 classes and had less square cylinder dimensions and a higher BP. A disposition oddity: 930-934 were built by Baldwin as 4-cylinder Vauclain compounds, simpled in 1907, and retired in 1945-1946; 940-944 were built by Alco-Richmond as 2-cylinder cross-compounds in the same year, also simpled in 1907, but retired in 1936. Engine numbers reflect D&RGW renumbering in 1924.

Class C-41 (Locobase 10761)

Data from Angus Sinclair, Twentieth Century Locomotives (New York: Railway and Locomotive Engineering, 1904), pp.572-574. Works numbers were 20519-20522, 20550, 20609-20611, 20640-20641, 20666-20668, 20695-20698, 20746-20753, 20829-20831, 20872-20873.

These large Vauclain compound Consolidations were bought to operate on the road between Denver, Pueblo, and Salida. The first leg covered 120 miles and surmounted the South Platte-Arkansas River divide. The next section consisted of an almost 1/2 mile(2,569 feet) rise over 67 miles (an average of 0.7%) from Pueblo to Palmer Lake, at which the railroad ascended another 2,039 feet in the next 53 miles (also 0.7%). And Pueblo to Salida was no less challenging, a continuous rise of 2,378 feet that included grades as steep as 1.42% and no less than 0.66%.

Baldwin's answer included the introduction of a wide firebox (but shallow) to the D & RG. The HP-LP cylinder groupings were fed by the same balanced piston valve.

These were later simpled and superheated; see Locobase 1461.

Class C-41-185 (Locobase 1460)

Data from 1937 D & RGW locomotive diagram book supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive collection. See also http://www.sound.net/~drgw/history/drg2.htm . Works numbers were 18180-18182, 18204-18205, 18216-18218, 18236-18239 in September 1900; 18282-18284 in October 1900.

Most retired in the 1936-1939 years, but 956 hung on until 1946. 955 was converted to a 2-8-0T tank engine in 1937 and soldiered on until 1946. Engine numbers reflect D&RGW renumbering in 1924.

Class C-41-190-superheated (Locobase 1461)

Data from 1937 D & RGW locomotive diagram book supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive collection.

These engines were built as 4-cylinder Vauclain compounds with 17" x 30" HP, 28" x 30" LP cylinders. The D&RG (or Baldwin) rated their TE at 43,200 lb. Compared to the earlier C-41s, these had much larger grates.

They were modified in 1907 as simple-expansion locomotives with 2 21"x30" cylinders and a TE of 40,893 lb. Engine numbers reflect D&RGW renumbering in 1924. They were disposed of in several ways. Most were scrapped over many years, others became 0-8-0s and still others were converted to narrow-gauge operation as K-37 2-8-2s. For these last, see Locobase 9466.

http://www.sound.net/~drgw/history/drg2.htm

Class C-43 (Locobase 1463)

Data from 1952 D & RGW locomotive diagram book supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive collection.

Among the heaviest of Consolidations for the D&RG/D&RGW. These engines lasted for decades, only being retired in 1949-1956. Engine numbers reflect D&RGW renumbering in 1924.

http://www.sound.net/~drgw/history/drg2.htm

Class C-44 (Locobase 11424)

Data from "Locomotive Building," The Railroad Gazette, Vol XLIII, No 21 (22 November 1907), p 636.

These smaller Consolidations were built for both the Denver & Rio Grande (48 of which 11311150 were produced in 1906, 1151-1178 in 1908) and Rio Grande Western (20 in 1906, numbered 1180-1199). They were used in Minturn-Malta (Tennessee Pass), Colorado through-freight service, averaging 942 freight ton-miles per locomotive mile in January 1917 between Denver and Salida (ruling grade 1.42%).

They were replaced in that service by the 2-10-2s described in a Railway Age Gazette article of 3 August 1917. Most of this class was superheated; see Locobase 430.

Class C-48 - superheated (Locobase 430)

Data from D&RGW 12 - 1937 Folio 10 Locomotive Diagrams supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive collection.

After the C-44s (Locobase 11424) were displaced from Tennessee Pass service by the new 2-10-2s, they were not finished operating on the railroad.

In fact, many were superheated and fitted with 58 sq ft of thermic syphons. (Those that didn't have syphons had 212 2" tubes vs the 193 found in the syphon engines.) Heating surface data describes those 21 later fitted with thermic syphons. Somewhat unusually, the rebuild also meant that boiler pressure increased from 200 psi to 215 psi

As rebuilt, 20 had Baker gear, 28 had Walschaert. Thus reequipped, the class carried on until retirement in 1949-1955.