Steam & Excursion > She Is A Long Way From Home But Is Still Drawing Attention!

The 2 articulated engines built by Baldwin for the Uintah Ry of Mack, Colorado never got the photographic exposure they deserved.

With the Uintah so remote only a very few die-hard railfans saw them run there before the line was abandoned in 1939. The pair arrived on the Sumpter Valley Ry in 1940 just be fore the beginning of WW-2 and the gas rationing that would limit their exposure to railfans once again. The Sumpter Valley would be abandoned less than 2 years after the war ended so, once again not many rilfans saw them run there.

Once they arrived in Guatemala for their final years of service the 2 articulateds actually were sought out by the railfans that knew of them and were willing to travel to Central America. One such fan was Dudley Westler who captured #251 while still in service in October 1960.

Except for some changes to her tender and the new paint scheme, #251 looks much like she did during her years on "The Stump Dodger" in Eastern Oregon. Finally, #251 was achieving the fame that she deserved for all those years earlier.

Martin



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 03/20/18 11:14 by LoggerHogger.

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Guatemala is in Central America, not South America.

Elizabeth

Thanks, Martin, for posting this great photo that Dudley took long ago. The entire Uintah Railway was a very interesting operation. I didn't kn ow that any of their locomotives had been sent down to Central America. (Too bad the 251 did not ge saved, but you can't save everything.)

F I de C A + Ferrocarilles Internacionales de Centro America.
International Railways of Central America.

How did I do on today's Spanish Lesson?

James R.(Jim) Baker
Whittier, CA

"Machines of Iron" made a video of one of the two 2-6-6-2T climbing the Uintah 7% grade and rounding the 66 degree curve. Are there any video on the market of them working on FICA?