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Southern Pacific No. 18, also known as the "Slim Princess", is an oil-fired 4-6-0 "Ten Wheeler" type narrow-gauge steam locomotive built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1911.
No. 18 was originally built in 1911 for the Nevada–California–Oregon Railway (NCO) as No. 12 until it was sold to Southern Pacific (SP) in 1926. [1] It was renumbered to 18 and worked the rest of its career on SP's narrow-gauge lines along with sister locomotives Nos. 8 and 9, serving the desert areas of Nevada and California.
In 1954, a new narrow-gauge General Electric diesel locomotive was purchased as Southern Pacific No. 1 to replace Nos. 8 and 18, resulting in the two steam locomotives retiring soon. No. 8 was donated to the City of Sparks, Nevada, while No. 18 was donated to the City of Independence, California.
No. 9 was the last SP narrow-gauge steam locomotive to retire and pull a passenger train, with the last day of steam operation on the narrow-gauge line being August 25, 1959, and was retired a year later. [2]
The locomotive was preserved, along with No. 8 and No. 9. Between 2009 and July 2017, No. 18 was restored for operating condition on a short stretch of track in a public park in Independence, California. Then, in early November 2018, No. 18 was leased to the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad (D&SNG) in Durango, Colorado, to train the crew on an oil burning steam locomotive, as the D&SNG is restoring K-37 No. 493 to operating condition while also converting the locomotive from burning coal to burning oil. [3] [4] [lower-alpha 1] As of 2023, the D&SNG is aiming to have most, if not all, of their operational steam locomotives converted from burning coal to burning oil.
On April 9, 2019, while the locomotive was working a spring excursion, a piston ring broke on the engineer's side, creating a hole in the right-side cylinder head. [6] The failure of the piston ring occurred on the grades between Hermosa and Rockwood. [6] The four passenger cars, along with 100 passengers on board, were hauled back to Durango, and No. 18 was hauled back to Durango for repairs the next day. [6] [7] On July 22, 2019, the locomotive returned to service and returned to the Eastern California Museum three months later. [8]
On April 8, 2021, it was announced that No. 18 will return to the D&SNG from April to October 2021, and on April 11, it departed for Durango, Colorado via truck. After arriving back at Durango, No. 18 has been used for many double header runs to Silverton since early May 2021 and will be taking part in a photo charter in September 2021 alongside the newly restored No. 493.
On the Fourth of July weekend of 2022, No. 18 visited the Nevada State Railroad Museum in Carson City, Nevada, for the Great Western Steam Up event, which marked the 150th anniversary of the completion of the Virginia & Truckee Railroad. [9]
The Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad, often shortened to Rio Grande, D&RG or D&RGW, formerly the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, was an American Class I railroad company. The railroad started as a 3 ft narrow-gauge line running south from Denver, Colorado, in 1870. It served mainly as a transcontinental bridge line between Denver and Salt Lake City, Utah. The Rio Grande was also a major origin of coal and mineral traffic.
Durango is a home rule municipality that is the county seat and the most populous municipality of La Plata County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 19,071 at the 2020 United States Census. Durango is the home of Fort Lewis College.
The Carson and Colorado Railway was a U.S. 3 ft narrow gauge railroad that ran from Mound House, Nevada, to Keeler, California, below the Cerro Gordo Mines. It was incorporated on May 10, 1880, as the Carson and Colorado Railroad, and construction on the railroad began on May 31, 1880. The narrow gauge track was chosen to reduce cost. Much of the route now parallels U.S. Route 95 Alternate, U.S. Route 95, Nevada State Route 360, U.S. Route 6, and U.S. Route 395.
The Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad, often abbreviated as the C&TSRR, is a 3 ft narrow-gauge heritage railroad that operates on 64 miles (103 km) of track between Antonito, Colorado, and Chama, New Mexico, in the United States. The railroad is named for two geographical features along the route: the 10,015-foot (3,053 m)-high Cumbres Pass and the Toltec Gorge. Originally part of the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad's narrow-gauge network, the line has been jointly owned by the states of Colorado and New Mexico since 1970. Today, the C&TSRR is one of only two remaining parts of the former D&RGW narrow-gauge network, the other being the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad (D&SNG), which runs between the communities of Durango and Silverton, Colorado. The railroad has a total of ten narrow-gauge steam locomotives and two narrow-gauge diesel locomotives on its current roster. The railroad also operates two smaller former D&RGW steam locomotives, Nos. 315 and 168, for special events and excursions.
The Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, often abbreviated as the D&SNG, is a 3 ft (914 mm) narrow-gauge heritage railroad that operates on 45.2 mi (72.7 km) of track between Durango and Silverton, in the U.S. state of Colorado. The railway is a federally-designated National Historic Landmark and was also designated by the American Society of Civil Engineers as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark in 1968.
The Ghost Town & Calico Railway is a 3 ft narrow-gauge heritage railroad and amusement park attraction within Knott's Berry Farm, an amusement park located in Buena Park, California.
The Rio Grande Southern Railroad was a 3 ft (914 mm) narrow-gauge railroad which ran in the southwestern region of the US state of Colorado, from the towns of Durango to Ridgway, routed via Lizard Head Pass. Built by Russian immigrant and Colorado toll road builder Otto Mears, the RGS operated from 1891 through 1951 and was built with the intent to transport immense amounts of silver mineral traffic that were being produced by the mining communities of Rico and Telluride. On both ends of the railroad, there were interchanges with The Denver and Rio Grande Railroad, which would ship the traffic the RGS hauled elsewhere like the San Juan Smelter in Durango.
The Colorado Pacific Rio Grande Railroad is a class III railroad operating in south-central Colorado. It runs on 154 miles of former Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad tracks on three lines radiating from Alamosa and interchanges with the Union Pacific Railroad in Walsenburg. Much of the railroad is located in the San Luis Valley. In 2022, it was purchased by Stefan Soloviev.
Standard gauge was favored for railway construction in the United States, although a fairly large narrow-gauge system developed in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and Utah. Isolated narrow-gauge lines were built in many areas to minimize construction costs for industrial transport or resort access, and some of these lines offered common carrier service. Outside Colorado, these isolated lines evolved into regional narrow-gauge systems in Maine, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Iowa, Hawaii, and Alaska.
The Eureka is a privately owned 3 ft gauge steam locomotive based in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is one of three preserved Baldwin class 8/18 C 4-4-0 locomotives in the United States, of which it is the only operable example. It is listed on the United States National Register of Historic Places.
The Denver and Rio Grande Western K-36 is a class of ten 3 ft narrow gauge 2-8-2 "Mikado" type steam locomotives built for the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad (D&RGW) by Baldwin Locomotive Works. They were shipped to the Rio Grande in 1925 and were first used along the Monarch Branch and Marshall Pass, but were later sent to the Third Division out of Alamosa. Of the original ten, four are owned by the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad (D&SNG) and five by the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad (C&TSRR). Number 485 fell into the turntable pit at Salida and was scrapped in Pueblo in 1955, with many parts being saved.
The Denver and Rio Grande Western K-37 is a class of 2-8-2 "Mikado" type narrow-gauge steam locomotives built for the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad. They were all new steam locomotives rebuilt in the D&RGW Burnham Shops as a cheaper option to new Baldwin K-36s but were in fact more expensive. Burnham Shops was assisted in the construction of the class by the Stearn-Rogers Manufacturing Company. The class recycled components from Baldwin Locomotive Works built Class 19 2-8-0 locomotives used on the Rio Grande's standard gauge; re-using the boiler, tender and other components salvaged from the C-41's. The engine components were constructed new for the locomotive class.
The Denver and Rio Grande Western K-28 is a class of ten 3 ft gauge narrow gauge 2-8-2 "Mikado" type steam locomotives built in 1923 by the Schenectady Locomotive Works of the American Locomotive Company (ALCO) for the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad. They were the first new narrow gauge locomotives ordered by the railroad since 1903. They initially comprised class E-4-148-S, but were reclassified K-28 in 1924 when the railroad reorganized into the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad.
The Rio Grande Scenic Railroad of Colorado was a heritage railway that operated from 2006 to 2019 in and around the San Luis Valley as a subsidiary of the San Luis and Rio Grande Railroad. The heritage railroad ceased operating excursions following a wildfire that damaged some of their facilities, as well as the parent company SLRG entering Chapter 11 bankruptcy in late 2019.
Denver and Rio Grande Western No. 315 is a class "C-18" 2-8-0 "Consolidation" type narrow-gauge steam locomotive that was originally built for the Florence and Cripple Creek Railroad by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1895. It was purchased by the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad (D&RG) in 1917 and later became known as No. 315. It was retired in 1949 and had been on display at City of Durango parks until the Durango Railroad Historical Society restored the locomotive from 2001 to August 2007. It was operational from then until September 2021. On March 8, 2023, it has returned to service, following its FRA federally mandated 1,472-day boiler inspection and overhaul. Most "sister" locomotives to No. 315 were scrapped, but two others survive today such as is D&RGW No. 318 and F&CC No. 10. No. 318 is on display at the Colorado Railroad Museum and F&CC No. 10 is currently in storage at the Nevada Southern Railroad Museum.
The San Juan Express was a narrow gauge train that ran on the 3 feet (0.91 m) Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad (D&RGW) route from Durango, Colorado via Chama, New Mexico; Cumbres Pass; and Antonito, Colorado to Alamosa, Colorado. The train ran from February 11, 1937 until January 31, 1951 as train numbers 115 and 116, though towards the end of the passenger service it took on the number 215 and 216.
The Alamosa–Durango line or San Juan extension was a railroad line built by the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad, following the border between the U.S. states of Colorado and New Mexico, in the Rocky Mountains. The line was originally built as a 3 ft narrow-gauge line between Alamosa, Colorado, and Durango, Colorado. Portions of the route survive to this day: the now standard-gauged segment from Alamosa to Antonito, Colorado, and a narrow-gauge portion from Antonito to Chama, New Mexico.
Southern Pacific #9 is a 4-6-0 oil-fired narrow gauge steam locomotive, built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in November 1909.
The 416 and Burro Fire Complex were two wildfires that burned in the southwestern portion of Colorado in the United States in 2018. The fires burned predominantly within San Juan National Forest, 13 miles north of Durango and 14 miles south of Rico. The 416 Fire started on June 1, 2018, and the Burro Fire followed on June 8. Federal officials allege that embers emitted from a coal-burning steam locomotive used by the historic Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad started the blaze, and have filed a lawsuit against the railroad seeking recoupment of $25 million in firefighting costs, penalties and legal expenses. The fires burned a combined total of over 57,000 acres (23,067 ha) and have cost more than $43 million to contain. On March 31, 2022, the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad reached settlements in two lawsuits stemming from its role in starting the 416 fire: one settlement with federal authorities in which the railroad would pay $20 million to the federal government and institute a fire mitigation program for its operations. In the second settlement, the railroad agreed to pay an undisclosed amount to home and business owners impacted by the fire and subsequent floods during the summer monsoon season that followed in the wake of the 416 fire.
