D&RGW #5371

[Klinger]

Ahh, any Rio Grande fan knows of this locomotive. She is the last non-vandalized.....I mean patched Rio Grande locomotive left. She survived both the Southern Pacific Mergers and the Union Pacific Merger. She was until recently operating out of Utah. She was retired....sort of....and moved in a freight to Cheyenne.

I went on Saturday to tour the steam shop and roundhouse. I was surprised to see 5371 sitting inside the steam shop behind one of the E9B units.

nice to see her indoors, I had heard she was there, but did not expect her to be inside (let alone see her at all). her paint is in pretty poor shape I must say. It seems to be melted near the radiators. Feels almost like a turtle skin when you run your hand across it. Looks like she will need to be sandblasted and have a grinder across it in order to repaint the unit.

I asked the steam shop guys what the plan for the Unit was. First response was "Paint it Yellow?"

Haha, not funny. They are hoping she will remain in the heritage fleet for a while, they wanted to use her as a switcher. But they said that the thinking was that she will end up at the museum in Utah. I personally am hoping she will end up in Golden, but after reading some forums, Union Pacific did not seem thrilled to "donate" the locomotive. So if anyone has a few thousand dollars lying around to keep the Last true Rio Grande Unit in Colorado, maybe its time to pop up. Either way, they did say that she would NOT be scrapped, so don't worry too much about her

For now, she is safe and indoors

didnt get any pictures of the cab, but I have exterior shots. although I can say that a hole in the roof panel was fixed with a piece of duct tape

And the magnetic patch over the cab number, and the logo for 844 below it

Me and my friend Justin wanted to take it off and hide it make the Rio Grande people happy, we decided against it

I must say, 5371 looks a lot better then this poor F? B unit next to the roundhouse

Anyone want to help me reskin a model of the SD-40T? not sure if there are any good looking SD40T for Trainz, but I would like to do a reskin none the less

Another edit, here is a close up of the damaged paint....in case anyone wanted to see it up close

and I have a bunch more pictures if anyone wants me to post them

 

[domingomolina]

I was think bout doin this loco, please post the other pix if u can plz.

 

[Klinger]

Here are a few more shots of the locomotive.

 

[Prowler901]

Awesome She's a real beauty. They'd better take proper care of her.

Todd

 

[kamran]

sorry to bump this old thread but i am looking for this legendary loco and searched on google and found our own trainz forum link so i just popped in and really impressed by the shots you taken man
i love this beautiful pice of power and if i have few thousands dollars in my pocket i will buy it and parked it in my garage but currently have only 500$ in my pocket
by the way where is it now?

 

[bendorsey]

Hi Klinger:

If you ever get back there would you mind taking a few pics of that car behind the F?B unit and perhaps take an educated guess at its length, etc? Might make an interesting project. Looks like it has 6-wheel bogeys.

Climbing all over a loco has gotta be heap-mucho-fun.

Thanks,

Ben

 

[Klinger]

5371 went to the Ogden Railroad Museum at Union Station in Utah. Rumors are that she is still operational, but they lack the money to fuel and oil the Locomotive to test that theory. They are dying to have an operational engine, as with all their equipment, none of it is operational.

Hopefully some donations will come in, and they can fire her up, she is currently on Display under their Canopy

D&RGW 5401, another SD40T-2 was donated to the Colorado Railroad Museum, it is patched, and very vandalized thanks to California on the Conductors side. She is at Coors in Golden awaiting money to move her onto the property

 

[PerRock]

http://rrmods.com/sd40t2.shtml

enjoy

peter