Mystery Rotary Snow Plow 012 at Kokomo

Posted by Jim Courtney on
URL: http://c-sng-discussion-forum.254.s1.nabble.com/Mystery-Rotary-Snow-Plow-012-at-Kokomo-tp6339.html

(NOTE: I posted this in Jimmy Blouch's excellent thread: "Ten Mile Stations of the D&RG": http://c-sng-discussion-forum.41377.n7.nabble.com/Ten-Mile-Stations-of-the-D-amp-RG-td6164.html.  I think this topic deserves a lot more discussion, but feel it would be a distraction from the content of Jimmy's excellent maps, so I decided to start a new thread here)


In the Klingers' Highline Memories and Then Some there are two photos attributed to Anna Anderson, in the A.A.Anderson Collection, that show a rotary train in Kokomo. The captions do not identify the railroad, the date of the photos is listed as "early 1900."




I'm pretty sure this is a D&RG rotary train, departing Kokomo northbound. The town itself is behind the train, the two coal bins for the D&RG bunk house and section house are at right mid frame. The C&S line appears far distant--just above and to the left of the rotary's snow plume, the C&S snowshed in the cut by the trestle is faintly visible.

The two locomotives appear to be D&RG C-class engines, as the diamond stacks look more like a D&RG diamond than an old UP diamond of the late 1880s to early 1890s. Besides, if they were C&S locomotives in early 1900 they should sporting McConnel "pancake " stacks.

So, it's likely a D&RG rotary train--or is it?





Anna Anderson also took this photo of the rotary train stopped at Kokomo, perhaps by the D&RG depot. The tender is lettered "Rotary 012". The numerals are the skinny block Gothic numerals as on D&RG 262 above, so it is consistent with D&RG period lettering.

But the problem is that none of the D&RG narrow gauge rotaries ever carried the number "012" that I can find.

The D&RG narrow gauge rotaries were not renumbered (relettered?) to the familiar "OM" and "ON" until 1907.

According to Robert Sloan in A Century + Ten of D&RG Narrow Gauge . . ., the D&RG assigned numbers to its two narrow gauge rotaries of that era, when delivered in 1889: They were numbered 1 (later OM) and 2 (later ON).  Rotary OO was acquired from the Crystal River railroad in 1916, and never carried a D&RG number. Likewise, Rotary OY was a modern machine, acquired new in 1923.

So, if the photos don't show a D&RG rotary, does it belong to the DL&G or C&S? The rotary in the photos don't look like the Jull.

The only two Cooke (Leslie) rotaries on the South Park, according to Mal Ferrel in The South Park Line, were:

a)  DSP&P 011, built in 2/1889, later renumbered to DL&G 064 in 1890, to C&S 01 in 1900, finally renumbered to our old friend C&S 99200 in 1912.
b)  Standard gauge C&S 03, built in 1900, renumbered 0270 in 1908, finally 99201 in 1912. It wasn't converted to narrow gauge until 1935, so it cant be a candidate.

The only other narrow gauge rotary was the Jull, built in 1890, originally delivered as DL&G 066, but was standard gauged after the snow plow trials, in 1890, renumbered UPD&G 025 in 1893.  

Since the original DSP&P rotary number of 011 is sequential to 012, is it possible that the DSP&P had a second rotary that we don't know about?

Are there any members of the Colorado Rotary Club on this forum, who can tell me who owned "Rotary 012" in the photo above?