Steam & Excursion > Tiempo de Alamosa (veinticuatro)

Alamosa Time!
We live in a world without SP Mt-4's or NYC J-3a's, yet somehow this thing still exists.  Go figure.  We'd heard rumors it still did, and Blanca wasn't far out of our way, so we went looking...

Photo 1.  Southern San Luis D-500.  (D-500?!  Why bother with a fancy name?- Why not just point and say, "That".  The SSLV That)
Stevo said he'd heard it was built from a DGRW transition flat from Alamosa.  The 3-coupler pockets & proportions sure support him.  I've read it was once a tender, but I supose it could be both.
Photo 2. Looking inside there doesn't really seem to be any kind of control stand.  Perhaps the SSLV used some kind of Mind Meld?  Yeah, that would make sense.  Cool.
Photo 3.  I think if you strapped a pair of GE J47-19's to the roof you'd really have something!  It'd be the Critter From Hell!
SR

This trip was in 2009.  Anyone know if this thing still roams the earth?

 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/01/15 13:24 by BoilingMan.

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Last I heard it does still exist.  That thing has always fascinated the hell out of me.  Why that little, broke down railroad decided to build their own power.....

It seems that the SL&RG acquired the two engines along with the assets of the SSLV they purchased.  They have rebuilt about 1-2 miles of the old mainline for car storage.  Unknown what they intend to do with that beast, assuming it is still around.

Z

Yes, there was a second loco there too- you can see it in the 1st photo. It was a Plymouth or something similar.
We didn't give it much mind, the Mighty D-500 was far more the star of the Blanca dead line.
SR

I had heard that it was going to the Colorado Railroad museum in Golden if somehow they could figure out how to transport it and pay for the move.

J47.
I'm tell'n ya. It'd be in Golden in about a half hour.
SR

The last time I was through Blanca, D500 was still there.  It had been pulled off the rails a few years ago to free up track space for a large railcar scrapping operation.

We tried to get CRRM intersted in D500, but they didn't want it.  Too bad it is a very historic locomotive.  How many Diesel locomotives were built in Colorado?

Indeed, D500 was built from a standard gauge idler car, used for switching cars of both narrow and standard gauges.  Note the 3-way coupler pocket on the end.

D500 was built while one of the SSLV's steam locomotives was being scrapped (2-8-0 #104 - I think).  A lot of 104 ended up down in the frame of D500 as ballast. 

Thanks Earl. About the D-500's frame, or rather, the transition flats..
Were they in turn based on former tenders, or were they purpose built?
(That's what I meant by their being both tenders AND transflats) (ha! Transflats! I crack me up)
SR

I'm thinking they were purposely built as idler cars from scratch.  There were a couple of NG tenders set for use as idler cars for use on the Valley Line.  One was the tender from Uintah RY #30 which became W499 and eventually the tender for Rotary OM. 

Steve ---
Thanks so much fotr these photos of what has to be
the weirdest "critter" I have ever seen!  I thought she
was a caboose when I first saw your photo.  (Didn't read
the text first!)  It really does look as tbhough the SSLV
used a caboose as the basic design for this odd thing,
and just cut out rectangles for doors and the radiator.

It is a real shame that the Colorado RR Museum did
not want her.  I mean -- talk about unique and very
historic!  

Does anyone know if she still exists?  Gosh -- I hope so!
(What's not to like?  :)   )   (And I am almost always much
more interested in big main line steam than critters, but --
this dear thing just captivates me.