One of three remaining D&RGW K-28 Mikado locomotives pulls the Silverton train northbound onto the famous High Line—on my 11th birthday in 1962. Twenty years earlier, the railroad owned 10 of these "sports models."
Seven K-28s are missing from the Durango yard—470, 471, 472, 474, 475, 477, and 479. They were destroyed, 3,500 miles from the Colorado Rockies, by arctic winter weather and despicable wartime maintenance. They left sisters 473, 476, and 478, and some larger siblings.
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One of three remaining D&RGW K-28 Mikado locomotives pulls the Silverton train northbound onto the famous High Line—on my 11th birthday in 1962. Twenty years earlier, the railroad owned 10 of these "sports models." |
Until the early 1940s, the D&RGW operated the largest fleet of narrow gauge 2-8-2 Mikados in the world. With 15 K-27 "Mudhens", and 10-locomotive sets of each class K-28, K-36, and K-37, all delivered between 1903 and 1928, the Rio Grande's roster was the largest of any slim gauge.
Mudhens #451-466 came first. In a two-year period (1903-1904, they were delivered new from Baldwin Locomotive Works in a grand experiment deemed a complete success by Rio Grande's management. The locomotives earned their odd nicknames early in their illustrious careers, when they were prone to derailment on the line's 30- to 40-pound rails. Upon their arrival, the railroad began upgrading its system of narrow-gauge track to 50- and 60-pound rail, "paving" the way for even heavier locomotives.
Although two of the K-27s (the leakiest, hardest-riding pair) were foisted off on Rio Grande Southern ownership, all 45 locomotives ultimately prowled the entire 650-plus miles of the Narrow Gauge Circle.
The 10 K-28 locomotives (#470-479) were built new for the narrow gauge by the American Locomotive Company at ALCOs Schenectady, New York, shops. It was the Rio Grande's only order of steamers from other than Baldwin. Although well-liked by the crews, these "sports models" were only slightly heavier than the K-27s and thus never as popular with dispatchers. The nickname came from the sleek appearance of the K-28s, with their front-mounted air pumps—and unprecedented acceleration (excellent throttle response and steaming qualities).
The 10 K-36s (#480-489) were products of Baldwin's Eddystone, Pennsylvania, shops (Philadelphia area). Neither they or their big sisters ever earned nicknames. The K-37s (#490-499) were rebuilt by the railroad in its own shops from too-small, nearly-obsolete standard gauge Baldwin-built 2-8-0 Consolidations (#1011-1020)—basically, the boilers and cabs were moved to brand-new narrow-gauge running gear.
In the 1930s, K-37 #496 was hostled into the Salida turntable pit in a regrettable accident. Considered too badly damaged to be repaired, the locomotive was cut up for scrap on the spot. The rest survived until World War II, when outside forces started eating into the roster.
By 1962, only one of the Mudhens, three K-28s, and nine each of the others, still existed. Well, actually, a second K-27 was in steam, at Knott's Berry Farm.
Over a period of 20-plus years between World War II and the Vietnam War, Rio Grande dropped the fires of three-quarters of its Mikes, as business continued to slide and the narrow gauge piled red ink on red ink. Some the line sold; most simply slipped into retirement and slumbered away in Chama or Durango until the end of operations.
The story behind the disappearance of the seven K-28s is typical of narrow-gauge history. The were borrowed, ruined, and destroyed by, of all agencies—the U.S. Army Railroad Corps.
When I ran across a web site dedicated to the White Pass & Yukon Railroad, the story began to make sense. The narrow-gauge WP&YR runs across the U.S.-Canada border from Skagway, Alaska, to Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. It was built as a response to the back-breaking labor of trekking tons of mining material into the Yukon during the 1895-1898 gold rush.
It simmered until the spring of 1942—World War II—when the United States constructed the Alaskan Highway (then called the Alcan Highway) for defense against a perceived Japanese invasion of Alaska. In three years, WP&YR moved massive amounts of construction and military goods into the highway zone.
In fact, to keep up traffic densities, the Army Corp of Engineers, the Army Railroad Corps, and the U.S. Military Railroad Authority requisitioned surplus three-foot narrow-gauge steam locomotives from all over the country.
Of course, the 10 K-28s sitting on the Alamosa, Chama, and Durango ready tracks caught the military's attention. The locomotives were small-wheeled for freight service and capable of pulling what was, to the military, considered high tonnage for a narrow-gauge. And more pointedly, Rio Grande's traffic had declined enough that it couldn't justify operating all 10 sports models at any one time.
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Former Microsoft technical writer and friend Greg Berg took this WP&YR photo during his post-Microsoft vacation to Skagway, et al, and agreed to let me use it. He also visited New Zealand and rode their narrow gauge. Photo © Greg Berg. All rights reserved. Used by permission |
Rio Grande convinced the military to leave three, the best of the lot, for the railroad's passenger service and for the Silverton branch, which was then rated for locomotives no heavier than the K-28s. The other seven were shorn of their rods and critical moving parts, towed to Alamosa and shipped on standard gauge flatcars to Seattle. The were barged to Skagway, hastily reassembled, rushed back in steam, and readied to attack the hill to White Pass and beyond.
Plans all along were to use them for the wartime duration and then return them to D&RGW. That's when nature intervened. The winters of 1943 and 1944 were among the century's severest. They all but stopped the war in Europe (the Eighth Air Force aborted more bombing missions in those winter months than the rest of the war together).
In the Yukon, storm after storm came pounding out of the North Pacific, dumping tons of snow in the upper British Columbia mountains, and more devastatingly, pouring massive rains on Skagway and in the Yukon Territory. Roads turned to unfathomable mud holes. Work ground to a halt and arctic mosquitoes proliferated.
And all the Army's the extra locomotives, left uncovered for lack of adequate facilities during the WP&YR's too-rapid build-up, began succumbing to rust and northwest mold. It filled the boiler lagging, got into the cylinder packing, and invaded the lubricating systems of the seven K-28s. Before they really proved themselves pulling tonnage on the grade to Dead Horse Gulch, they proved incapable of even moving themselves around the Skagway docks.
By late 1944, it was obvious that, with one exception, the locomotives were not going back to Colorado. In fact, they weren't going anywhere—they had to be stored unusable on what yard WP&YR sidetracks could be spared. When track space finally became too much of a premium commodity, they were surplused and sold to a scrap dealer in Seattle, Washington. They were shipped back to the states, ripped apart with cutting torches in 1944 and 1945, and the metal sold to make more military materials.
Howard Clifford's Rails North: The Railroads of Alaska and the Yukon details the final Valhallas of the K-28s (Page 48). Given the WP&YR road numbers 250-256, they were disposed as follows:
My family didn't move to Seattle until 1962. I've always lamented the role my new home city played in the tragedy.
I'd gladly trade all the modernity of computers and the Internet for a day in the 1930s, walking the yards in Durango, Chama, Alamosa, and Salida as did John Norwood, John Krause, and John Gruber, photographing everything with a boiler and 20 wheels—preserving those fleeting memories.
Boerries Burkhardt, owner of the White Pass & Yukon web site, responded to my question about the K-28s:
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Dear Michael, You made a good question, special because the most literature wrote wrong information about the K-28 at the WP&YR.
But on the other hand, if you get the newer revision of Stan Chonen's White Pass, a pictorial history, you'll find at least a few rare K-28 pictures. And to your questions about contact to the WP&YR. Yes, I have direct contact with them, but hard to say, but the most old WP&YR pictures were stolen from former employees. So even they have trouble to get accurate information. If you need more details or have more questions, please feel free to contact me. Take care -----Original Message----- From: Michael Heavener Subject: K-28s taken to Skagway In 1942/43, seven of the D&RGW K-28 locomotives (Nos. 470, 471, 472, 474, 475, 477, and 479) were requisitioned by the US Army for use on the WP&Y. I am looking for more information on these seven. If you have any contacts at WP&Y, or elsewhere, that could give me details or share photos, please email me. I know all seven locomotives were scrapped in Seattle, Wash, USA, and Ogden, Utah, USA, in 1944/45--destroyed by two years of bad maintenance by the US Army in the harsh Yukon winters. |
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