Class 145 / T-19 (Locobase 12248)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University Volume 17, p. 234. Works numbers were 15561-15564 in November 1897. See also Railway Age and Northwestern Reporter, Vol 24 (24 December 1897), p. 1039.

Locobase 12021 shows the earlier class of mid-sized Ten-wheelers delivered to the RGW in 1892. Five years later, Baldwin supplied this quartet, which enlarged most of the dimensions of the earlier engines.

The Online resource for the Denver & Rio Grande Western railroad and its constituents says that these were originally completed as Vauclain compounds ([], last accessed 13 February 2011). Contemporary resources including the specifications page and the Railway Age article clearly include the simple-expansion 19" x 26' cylinders shown in this entry.

70 was dismantled in August 1924.

Class 150 / T-26 (Locobase 11149)

Data from DeGolyer, Volume 20, p. 189. Baldwin works numbers were 14989-14990 in August 1896.

The 1892 Ten-wheelers shown in Locobase 12021 suddenly seem small compared to these these hefty examples from four years later. The 1896 design pressed their boilers harder, offered more grate area, and marshalled considerably more heating surface area. Among those being built in the US, they fell in the top 20% for size.

The class shown here used a boiler with 34 fewer tubes, although the firebox retained the same dimensions as the earlier engines. Otherwise they were very similar.

The Baldwin specs outline the service these locomotives were expected to perform. They would pull eight 40-ton cars between Denver and Pueblo in 3 1/2 hours and 6 cars in 3 hours; both timings included 15 minutes for stops. The design was guaranteed by Baldwin to produce 1,500 hp.

Class 150 / T-26 (Locobase 16187)

Data from "Denver & Rio Grande Locomotives", Railway Age, Volume 24, No 24 (17 December 1897), p. 1015. See also DeGolyer, Volume 21, pp. 123 and 239. Works numbers were 15692-15693 in January 1898, and 16178-16183 in September 1898.

Locobase split this class in two based on the following reconstruction of events. The first two locomotives of the 150 class, which are described in 11149, were delivered in 1896 with relatively large boilers. Then the Rio Grande built two of their own

Class 170/T-28 (Locobase 2968)

Data from []; most data from Catalogue Descriptive of Simple and Compound Locomotives built by Brooks Locomotive Works, Dunkirk, NY (Buffalo, NY: Matthew-Northrup Company, 1899). See also "Ten-Wheel Passenger Locomotive for the Denver and Rio Grande", Railroad Gazette, Volume XXXI [31] , No 30 (28 July 1899), p. 537. Works numbers were 3196-3205 in May 1899.

Relatively high-pressured Ten-wheelers (for the time of construction). Cylinder size was later reduced to 20' x 26".

Retired in from 1926 to 1928

Class 179/T-31 - superheated (Locobase 1455)

Data from [] and from D&RGW 1956 Locomotive Diagrams supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange.

Similar to the T-28 Ten-Wheelers of 1899, but fitted with a cylinder 1 inch (25.4 mm) larger in diameter. Scrapped in 1936. Engine numbers reflect D&RGW renumbering in 1924.

NB: Tube length is an estimate based on the calculation of tube surface area by subtracting reported firebox heating surface from reported total evaporative heating surface.

Class 540 / TF-18 (Locobase 7627)

Data from WP 2 - 1946 Locomotive Diagrams supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange.

The Denver & Rio Grande roster presented by M. Keith Williams on [] (accessed 3 July 2006) shows that Rome delivered 10 of these in two batches. 540-545 were works# 536-541 and were produced in 1889-1890. A year later 546-549 (works# 672-675) were added.

Most were retired in the mid1920s. 543 was sold to Deep Creek Railway as their #1 in 1916. 546 served the Rio Grande for 15 years before being sold to the Western Pacific as their 126; #675 also went to the WP in the same sale as 127. The WP almost immediately sold 126 to its subsidiary, the Tidewater Southern, which reduced the driver diameter to 55" and increased the calculated tractive effort to 19,228 lb. Frank Brehm's WP roster 8

[], accessed 3 July 2006, says that the 126 stayed in service with the TS as their #1 until 1947. Sister 127 (works #675) was withdrawn in 1923 and scrapped in 1930.

Class 61 (Locobase 12021)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University Volume 17, p. 234. Works numbers were 12578 in March 1892 and 12596 in April.

This pair of simple-expansion Ten-wheelers was followed by 4 similar engines powered by Vauclain compounds with two 14" HP and two 24" LP cylinders.

550-551 went to scrap in 1924.

Class T-19-85 (Locobase 6820)

Data from CC&CS 1912 Locomotive Diagram and D&RGW 12 - 1937 Locomotive Diagrams supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange. See also Hugh G Boutell, "Railroading in Colorado", Railway and Locomotive Engineering, Volume 21, No 5 (May 1908), p. 191; and Jim Wrinn, "20", Trains, November 2020, pp. "First impressions of scrappy Rio Grande Southern 20 at the Colorado Railroad Museum", posted 5 August 2020 on Trains Magazine's staff blog at [], last accessed 9 October 2020. Works numbers were 5006-5008, 5399 in 1899 and 5420-5421 in 1900.

See Locobase 7700 for a bried history of the F&CC. Locobase suspects that these Ten-wheelers were based on the same basic firebox and boiler as the Consolidations shown in 7700. The first of the class was ordered by the Golden Central Railway as their 52, named Vista Grande. The other five went directly to the F&CC as 20-24, named, respectively, Portland, Isabella, Vindicator, Granite, and Last Dollar.

Meanwhile, F&CC's #20 Portland (works# 5007) went to the Rio Grande Southern in 1916 as their 20 (N). After a long career with that railroad, 20 (N) was sold to the Sierra Mountain Railroad Club for museum display.

All of the fiveTen-wheelers delivered to the F&CC in 1899 had names -- 20 was Portland, 21 Isabella (later road #25), 22 Vindicator, 23 Granite, and 24 Last Dollar.

Hugh Boutell's report on Colorado railroading in 1908 described the 23 as "about the finest narrow gauge locomotive I ever saw ...mighty well proportioned." He added that the F&CC kept its engines in the "best possible shape and the road is much better equipped than a lot of standard gauge ones.

All five were distributed to other roads when the standard-gauge Cripple Creek & Colorado Southern took over the road in 1916. 22 and 23 went to SP subsidiary Nevada California Oregon; they later bore the class ID T-45. The other three-- Schenectady works numbers 5007, 5421. and 5008, respectively -- were sold to the Rio Grande Southern.

23 was retired by the NCO in 1921, 25 (ex-21) was dismantled in 1940, 22 went out of service in 1942 and was dismantled in 1946, and 20 was procured by the Rocky Mountain Railroad Club in 1952. 20 was transferred to the the Colorado Railroad Museum in 2006 so it could undertake a restoration to operating condition.

The CRM made use of a "generous [$2 million, Jim Wrinn later wrote] donation" that depended on sending the 20 to Pennsylvania's Strasburg Railroad. Twelve years later, the 20 returned to the CRM in 2019, its restoration 80% complete. As much of the original engine as possible has been preserved and

Much of the remaining work involved the electrical system and especially the wooden cab, built new as a replica of the original design. The only change to the cab's fitments is the addition of LEDs. Wrinn's interview with Jeff Taylor, CRM's CMO and Curator of Rolling Stock & Equipment pinned down 1944-1947 as the time period used as a guide in restoring the 20. He noted that Strasburg connected easily accessible oil cups to the existing lube lines leading to the drivers and pony trucks and CRM fitted a water trap/particulate filter to the brake lines to trap dirt. "Other than that," he told Wrinn, "she is very traditional."

The CRM's first runs, pop-up photo shoots co-sponsored by Trains Magazine, came on 1 and 2 August 2020, 69 years after the engine last ran in service and fourteen years in all after restoration began. Wrinn's "first impressions" of the 20 in 2020: "No. 20 was loud with a commanding bark and an exhaust befitting a much larger locomotive [a new smokebox saddle casting may have contributed, Locobase suspects]. It spit out prodigious cinders, some the size of marbles. And for an 1899 Schenectady product that had not run in 69 years, it put on a show with four freight cars and original RGS caboose 0403 for an audience of 30 on a pop-up photo charter."

Locobase noticed the spark-arresting stack and wondered if the marble-sized cinders might pose a challenge to operators running the locomotive in the dry upland countryside. It's possible that the cinder volume will be reduced as the crew learns the subtleties of firing a 120-year old locomotive. But fires in past years in the same area led to the conversion of the Durango & Southern's much larger 493 (Locobase 9466) to oil-fuel steaming to reduce the risk of steam locomotive-caused fires.

Class T-29 (Locobase 1456)

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

Similar to the T-31 Ten-Wheelers of 1902, but intended for faster service and mounted on taller drivers. 763 had been built with 67" drivers, but was re-fitted with 63" sometime later, becoming a T-31 in the process.

Scrapped over a decade from 1939-1948. Engine numbers reflect D&RGW renumbering in 1924.

Class T-31 (Locobase 10760)

Data from Angus Sinclair, Twentieth Century Locomotives (New York: Railway and Locomotive Engineering, 1904), pp.538-540; and DeGolyer, Volume 24, p.250. Works numbers were 20381-20383, 20404-

20405, 20411-20412, 20429-20431.

Similar to the T-28 Ten-Wheelers of 1899, but delivered as Vauclain balanced compounds using a single 15" (381 mm) piston valve for each side's HP and LP cylinders. Sinclair explains that adopting the compound was a response to the need to couple a helper (banking) engine to push trains over the many grades that "...practically amounted to double heading each train half way over the division and then returning a light engine to one of the division termini."

Baldwin's specification pages included many extra notes such as "Tube sheet strengthened at dry pipe hole by "wrot" iron ring well riveted [this probably was the front sheet as the dry pipe provided the path of steam leaving the dome and heading toward the cylinders]...rivets best Burden rivet iron, holes must not be drifted but reamed to be fair & slightly countersunk under rivet heads."

A later note advised that "these engines on a 3% grade have the front end of crown sheet barely covered with water--correct hereafter." Also, arrange throttle lever so that throttle will open much slowler than BLW rig when starting."

This class was later simpled and superheated; see Locobase 1455.