Archie just sent me the attached image of T-2 4101 with roundhouse crew posed on it, much like the view of 4106 that I posted before. But this one is unusual because it was taken on Aug. 2, 1910, beside the roundhouse at Hastings, Neb., far from the Mallets'
assigned territory. And I'm adding another view of the 4101 that I believe to have been taken on this same trip. It's at Sterling, Colo., and the postcard on which it appeared was postmarked Jan. 13, 1911, indicating only that the photo was taken sometime
prior to that date, and August 1910 seems a reasonable date, especially since it was at that time just as unusual for one of the Mallets to visit Sterling as it was for one to appear at Hastings. My theory is really quite simple: Up until December 1923 when
the joint CB&Q-C&S locomotive shops opened at Denver, all shopping of Lines West locomotives (and thus including the T-1 and T-2 2-6-6-2s) was done at Havelock shops at Lincoln. Normally Alliance and Sheridan Division locomotives would be worked to and from
the shops via the High Line from Alliance direct to Lincoln. But if for any reason that line was not available because of a wreck or trackwork, or there was a reason for sending a locomotive via the other available route, then a locomotive returning from
shopping at Havelock would run west from Lincoln to Hastings, the division point between the Lincoln and McCook divisions, and then -- if it were something as big and heavy as a T-2 -- on west through McCook to Brush, Colo., where it would turn north to Sterling,
continuing on north to Bridgeport/Northport, Neb., and Alliance. Now, if the operating department wanted to try one of the T-2s (which were only a few months old in August 1910, having been built between February and April of that year) on Angora Hill, pulling
or pushing trains north from Northport to Alliance, this routing would make perfect sense. Yes, it was pretty early for a T-2 to need work that necessitated sending it back to Havelock, but just about anything could have happened to the locomotive that necessitated
the trip (possibly dead in a freight train on the way east). And because the locomotive was still quite new, the frugal Q would have seen no reason to repaint it while it was in the shop, so it would have returned west looking like it does in these two photos.
These two views, along with the one of 4106 with the Alliance roundhouse crew, presumably taken as it was being sent west to Sheridan to enter service, are the earliest photos I have encountered of the T-2s on the Burlington.
As with the 4101 photo, my scenario is merely a fabrication, but this one appears to have a bit more basis for being right.
Hol
P.S. -- I sure love all these new Mallet photos coming to light!