Ex-IRCA 40 Stretches her legs

Klinger

The Chicago CTA guy
I'm sure anyone who has ever visited the Central City railroad prior to its closing in 1981, or the Georgetown Loop from 1981 to 2004, or the Colorado Railroad Museum from 2004 onwards remembers good old number 40. Or maybe I am completly wrong and you saw her in Central American between 1923 and the mid 1970's

Her life at the museum is sporadic at best, at times she looks like she is broken, forgotten, maybe even abandoned. Rust and decay taking over everything from the smokebox to the faded green boiler jacket, the rust on the cylinder jackets, the rusty rods and the rust colored wheels.

While, seemingly back from the dead again, guess what, its 40. And some things have changed! She has a new(ish) tender, and one hell of a new coat of paint, and new lettering (not that we didn't like the Flying Royal Gorge lettering).

I believe it was 44's tender that was lettered for Royal Gorge and 40's tender was....well blank for a while. But now 40 has its tender back....I think, hell they have been swapped so many times its rather hard to keep track of them, and 44 is......well still 44 (kit form, some assembly required).

Anyway, back on subject, she has been repainted black, and is now lettered for the Colorado Central. She looks astounding! She rides wonderfully, but still full of her typical attitude. She is hard to fire, your always either giving her too little or too much fuel, either a clear stack or a black one, when you want to be in the middle. Thankfully, the Fireman's injector is not like the one of West Side 12, it actually opens after its primed! The throttle is different then on some engines since it has a pilot valve, allowing a little bit of steam past before opening the actual throttle valve. Although we spent about 20 minutes trying to get the bell ringer to work.....go figure. And the tender light still does not work, we gave up.

Anyway, I could site here and talk for hours, but pictures do her more justice

Before (November 2009)
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After (Today)
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Something else that got mentioned today. 40 is now better taken care of then she ever was during her working life in Central America, I say this nearly 90 year old is getting spoiled!
 
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god i wish i could use Blender/Gmax/any modelling program! These are my favorite narrow-gauge 2-8-0s, and, despite the A+ in rust-ology, i think she looks good with that green boiler jacket. i wish we had them for trainz, they're beautiful in every sense of the word (in railroad-lover's eye). :D

and you're right, she's too spoiled. you guys should let her get more grimy and rusty, that's how we're used to seeing her:hehe:
 
Excellent story and photos. I can literally smell the (fresh) paint when I look at the photos. But I suspect she's an oil burner because I'm not getting any hint of the distinctive aroma of burning coal. But then again, maybe my mind's nose is just out of wack today. :)
 
Not only is she good looking, she rides easy too. A nice smooth ride, unlike 346 which I think tends to buck about a little too much, particularly when your going up the 4% grade, she losses traction very easily. 130 and 140 are also a pain on the handling side. Though they are diesels, they hate our "yard" area with all the guide rails, when running through the yard both of them rock back and forth pretty badly.
 
The tender used in operation is the IRCA 111 (116) tender. The 111 is the newest of the 3, built by Baldwin in 1926, while 40 and 44 were built in 1921 and have identical tenders (see here- http://ngdiscussion.net/phorum/file.php?1,file=19868) and (http://www.freewebs.com/overtheloop/GL40portrait-3-27-04.jpg). Also you can see them on their first run in the USA here (http://ngdiscussion.net/phorum/read.php?1,141801,141801#msg-141801, last photo shows). 111's tender is larger and has a raised fuel bunker. 111 is being restored supposedly for Georgetown Loop. Here you can see the difference between 40's and 111's tenders (http://www.steamlocomotive.com/misc/images/showImage.php?image=fideca40-111-5.jpg)
 
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In the top photo of 40 rusting you can see the Royal Gorge Tender, behind that you can see the then blank, bigger, now Colorado Central Tender. Which has a different type of trucks, and journal boxes. Surprisingly, though 40 is older her trucks on the Royal Gorge tender look newer, like the have been replaced sometime in her career. Also there are pictures of the 111 dressed up as Colorado Central and Colorado Southern 111 with the high side tender.
 
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