Engines
The roster includes two Class C-19 Consolidation (2-8-0) locomotives, both originally constructed for the Denver & Rio Grande in 1881. When retired from service in Colorado, they were D&RGW C-19 engines No. 340 Green River (renamed Gold Nugget No. 40 for many years on the GT&C) from the Denver & Rio Grande Western and RGS No. 41 Red Cliff (renamed Walter K at the 60th anniversary ceremony January 12, 2012) from the Rio Grande Southern.
"Galloping Goose" motor rail buses kept the Rio Grande Southern railroad viable from the 1930s by carrying mail until they were used to scrap their own line in 1953. Knott also purchased this efficient and unique rail vehicle, the RGS Motor #3, which soldiers on at the GT&C on quieter days during the off-season – serving its original purpose when patronage did not justify hostling a steam engine to pull an entire train. Its strange appearance results from the thrifty RGS re-using and re-purposing obsolete equipment which more lucrative railroads would sell or discard. It is "kitbashed" from its original Pierce-Arrow limousine frame, engine, radiator, cowling and body which was converted to rail use by replacing the front axle with a four-wheel bogie truck and fitting the rear axle with flanged wheels at first, then a bogie truck which linked the powered axle to its mate with a chain drive. A RGS shop-built freight box (converted with trolley seats for passenger service in 1950) which articulates on the kingpin over the chain driven center truck. The wooden limousine sedan body was replaced after WW II with a 1939 Wayne military-surplus bus body with both left and right doors. Its Pierce-Arrow gasoline engine has been replaced, first with a war-surplus GMC gasoline engine at RGS, then at Knott's with a Cummins Diesel engine supported with an I-beam frame extension salvaged from the demolished Windjammer Surf Racers roller coaster.
In late 1973, the park received ex-D&RGW K-27 #464, a Mikado (2-8-2) locomotive. However, due to clearance issues, Knott's later donated the locomotive to the current owner and place of operation, the Huckleberry Railroad in Flint, Michigan.
Read more about this topic: Ghost Town And Calico Railway
Famous quotes containing the word engines:
“America is like one of those old-fashioned six-cylinder truck engines that can be missing two sparkplugs and have a broken flywheel and have a crankshaft that’s 5000 millimeters off fitting properly, and two bad ball-bearings, and still runs. We’re in that kind of situation. We can have substantial parts of the population committing suicide, and still run and look fairly good.”
—Thomas McGuane (b. 1939)