RGSrr.info Rio Grande Southern RR - Locomotive Timeline

Here's a history of the various locomotives which the RGS owned, showing when they were acquired, rebuilt, wrecked, sold and/or scrapped. I'll include links for photos, specs and other info where possible. Roster key: numbers without parenthesis () show the current total for engines owned (both in-service and out-of-service); numbers in parenthesis show engines out-of-service. For example, 4(1) means the RGS owned 4 of that type of locomotive, but 1 of them was out-of-service for some reason.

Some of the links below lead to detailed specs on each locomotive, via Keith Williams' wonderful D&RGW homepage. He also has a complete RGS Roster on that site. For K-27 fans, Bill White's site has a list of the various K-27s used on the RGS over the years.

For a complete list of D&RG locomotive classes, go here.
Bruce Metcalf has published an amazing and very complete history of the Consolidations (2-8-0s) used in Colorado, including details on the RGS 2-8-0s.

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Date	Event	Wheel	Class	Ref
Jan 1958	Bob Richardson (ie the Narrow Gauge Motel, which evolved into the CRRM) sells #42 for $5000, to help provide funding for it's move to from Alamosa to Golden (per a NGDF posting by Rick Steele) The buyer was the Magic Mountain Amusement Park (owned by Zeckendorf Corporation), which converted it to burn oil instead of coal. Magic Mountain later went under, was acquired by the Woodmoor Corp, and renamed Heritage Square. The site remains today, although only a 15" gauge steam train exists, perhaps using some of the original 3' ROW.	2-8-0	C-17	NGN, p20 Rick Steele
Aug 1958	Magin Mountain is now operating #42, and in a rare photo, Fritz Klinke captured it being serviced. Fritz writes: "I visited Bob Richardson at his motel, and he told me about selling the 42 to Magic Mountain, so the next day I visited the yards in Alamosa and took several pictures, including this one of 42 as it was headed into the shop building in the back ground for shopping. This transfer structure lifted the engine off its wheels, and then the whole engine and drivers went their separate ways during the shopping process." (please note - this photo is the property of and is copyrighted by Fritz Klinke)	2-8-0	C-17	Fritz Klinke
July 3, 1959	Fritz has several pictures from the first day of #42's operations at Magic Mountain in 1959. He writes that "The 42 made several trips around the loop with a passenger train after former Govenor Dan Thornton gave some opening remarks. Bob Richardson and a group from the CRRM drove over for the event and I rode along with them. That was the only time I saw the 42 operate. I also saw the 42 as it went into the Alamosa shops for shopping before it shipped to Magic Mountain. The 42 went from Bob's museum in Alamosa to the D&RGW shops, then to Magic Mountain and never made the move to the new Golden museum property. That 1959 date also marked the official opening of Bob's new motel at the museum and my mother and I were the first paying guests to stay there."       p1 - 42 leaning into a curve, probably the second run on the new loop.       p2 - waiting for the ceremony to start; Bob Richardson 3rd from left, setting up a photo       p3 - more of Bob setting up a photo of 1st run; notice the nice trackwork       p4 - 42 pulling it's 3-car train across a rather hokey-looking trestle 2/3rds thru the loop       p5 - before opening ceremony; spike driver stands ready; crew is in uniform       p6 - 42 is a few feet into the start of the first official run       p7 - Fritz is fairly sure this is former Governor Dan Thornton driving the final spike       p8 - 42 leaning into a curve not far from the spike driving ceremony, probably on the 2nd run       p9 - 42 a little further into it's 1st run shortly (100' ?). Note the guy hanging out of the cab!       p10 - Former CO Governor Dan Thorton during his speech; tracks were behind him. Fritz writes "After the spike driving, all climbed aboard and the first official train took off. Bob Richardson and crew opted not to ride for some reason, and we headed back to the motel after the 3rd run of the train. We did watch them put the train away in a nice storage building that had 2 tracks in it--one for the passenger equipment, and the other for the engine, and there was a drop pit for servicing the engine. As I look back on this, I think they did a very nice job from track work to restoration of the engine and all the details. The train station was exceptionally well done. (please note - photos are the property of and are copyrighted by Fritz Klinke).	2-8-0	C-17	Fritz Klinke
Feb 2, 1969	The Woodmoor Corp moves #42 from their Heritage Square property to an area outside their company headquarters in Monument, CO, where #42 became a static advertising display. Meanwhile, the railroad at Heritage Square was subcontracted to Ed Gerlits, who converted it to 2' gauge and ran his equipment there until he retired and closed the attraction.	2-8-0	C-17	Rick Steel
May 9, 1971	#42 apparently goes to the Heritage RR Co. At some point it is returned to the company's theme park near Denver.	2-8-0	C-17	Rick Steel
1973	#41 is taken out of service at Knott's Berry Farm and overhauled. It returns to service later that year.	2-8-0	C-19	Orange v2
1980s	#42 moves to Durango at some point in the 1980s. There is a rumor it was traded for 7-8 charter trips on the Silverton train. The D&SRR was purchased by Charles Bradshaw from the D&RG in 1981. Jeff Badger noted that #42 was still at Heritage Square in 1982, but Phil Hackman said it was in Durango, out of service and with a scorched crownsheet. So perhaps 1982 is the year it went to Durango. It's still there now, cosmetically restored and on display in the Durango & Silverton's roundhouse museum. In an interesting side note, Cameron Wallace noted that a Mr. C.V. Wood built Magic Mountain, along w/Disneyland, Six Flags over Texas, and several other parks. Six Flags is the only park still remaining (besides Disneyland), and when it was built Six Flags mgmt was informed of the #42, but ended getting their RR equipment from Louisana instead. He also notes that Magic Mtn was managed is such a way that each ride was its own concessionaire, and that the RR concessionaire got into a disagreement w/park mgmt at some point and ended up running the equipment into the ground and then left.	2-8-0	C-17	R Steele P Hackman J Hillier
1995	#42 is hydro tested in Durango, although it's frame is broken and restoration is unlikely. If restored, the boiler (as is) would have to operate at reduced pressure, and w/o superheating would require extra water stops. End result: less power, more water stops, and given that this is a small engine to begin with, it doesn't seem to make sense for the D&S to restore her, sad as that is for us RGS fans.	2-8-0	C-17	S Peck
1997	#42 is painted in Durango.	2-8-0	C-17	S Peck
July 2006	Shay #7, which spent