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C&S #74 ( Later R.G.S. #74. ) started her long, ( and somewhat infamous ) career back in 1898 when the Brooks Locomotive Works of Dunkirk, New York delivered three steam locomotives to the Colorado & Northwestern Railroad, which operated in and west of Boulder, Colorado. She was the first, becoming their the road number 30, and she was destined to survive three different owners to finally become the #74 on the Rio Grande Southern.
All three were equipped with the "inboard style" Stephensen Valve Gear, but #74
was created with a canted-chest slide valve arrangement of dubious design,
which would plague her throughout her long career. The reason being, all slide
valves required "Valve Oil" to keep them working; But the canted cylinders
allowed that oil to run off towards the low side, with the result that they
required noticeably more of the precious stuff than "management" allowed for,
which more often than not put her crews crosswise with the bean counters. On
more than one occasion an unsuspecting engineman came close to getting "bucked
out of the cab" because of that recalcitrant valve gear !
Anyhow, by 1909 the C&N had fallen on hard times, being resurrected as the Denver, Boulder & Western. Which lasted another ten years, but according to Mike, "No amount of creative and ingenious publicity could overcome raging floodwaters in Boulder Canyon, and in 1919, the line ceased operations. . ." In 1920 the C&S acquired the #30 #31 and #32. It was then that they were classified "B-4-F" and renumbered #74, #75, and #76.
Over time, all would become "C&S-ized," and in 1926, the C&S Shops replaced the
"inboard" Stephensen Gear with an in-house designed "Walschearts" valve gear.
The idea being to help fix the problem of the Johnson bar being so difficult to
manage and also correct the excessive wear to the existing valve gear.
Unfortunately, this modification failed to address the lubrication problems
associated with the canted-chest slide valve design, so those continued to
plague number 74 throughout the rest of her career.
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