Re: 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-tp6339p6342.html

In trying to identify the Rotary 012 at Kokomo, I concluded that it wasn't a D&RG rotary plow.  If so it must be a borrowed or leased rotary being used by the D&RG, either a narrow gauge plow or a standard gauge plow on narrow gauge trucks. The most likely owner of the Rotary 012, to loan the machine to the D&RG, would be the C&S or it's UP predecessors.

First the date of "1900".  Printed dates on photographs in books are notoriously inaccurate, being derived from the verbal memories of the people who took the photos, or inherited the photos. Only Doug Heitkamp seems to find vintage photos with dates written on the back. So, these photos could conceivably have been taken any time from 1887 when the Leslie plows were first built, to 1909, the last year the D&RG operated the Blue River branch.

I consulted my worn copy of Hol Wagner's The Colorado Road last night. He has a small chapter "Miscellaneous Equipment" that lists C&S system rotaries and their origins.  He only records three rotaries ever owned by the C&S and its predecessors, as listed above by Mal Ferrel.

We have to remember that equipment purchased new for the DSP&P was actually purchased by the UP owners and assigned to the South Park division of that larger UP system. The fact that the South Park's only Leslie rotary of the nineteenth century, when purchased in February of 1889, was numbered "011" might suggest that the UP management could have purchase a second rotary in the same order and numbered it "012" for use on another narrow gauge division.  

Further evidence that might be true are the subsequent numbers. Evidently in 1890, the UP began using a new numbering system for the rotaries in the UP system: The South Park rotary became "064". The Jull rotary, purchased in 1890, came pre-lettered as DL&G "066".  That leaves a vacant number "065", that could represent rotary "012" above.

So, what other UP narrow gauge subsidiary could have received Rotary 012 in 1889?  The obvious choice is the Utah & Northern, already standard gauging parts of its mainline. In 1889 to 1890, quite a bit of narrow gauge equipment was being transferred from the UP's U&N division to the South park division: The Rhode Island 2-8-0s, many freight cars and at least some cabooses.

It is possible that a newly arrived "012" was deemed unneeded on the U&N and became another Utah refugee and ended up in Colorado, perhaps leased by the UP to the D&RG.  It seems very odd, though, that the UP management would buy a new narrow gauge rotary for a narrow gauge subsidiary that was in the process of being standard gauged--but managements of large corporations often do odd things!

So I intend to research any evidence of rotaries on the U&N and other UP subsidiaries (OSL, OWRR&N, UP proper).

If anyone knows the origin of Rotary 012, please post the answer, so's I don't spend time going into rabbit holes of information.

Jim