Chris:
I met your grandfather (known on the railroad as R. Wright Armstrong) several
times in the early 1960s when I was a very young man researching FW&D equipment
in the Fort Worth general offices for my 1970 book on the subject. He was
always friendly and helpful to my efforts, and I have always been impressed
that he took seriously the idea that a high school student could be researching
a detailed study of the motive power and other equipment of the C&S and FW&D.
As to the headlight you now have in your back yard, I have to question whether
it is in fact from FW&D 31. As Ken Martin has noted, the 31 was a small 0-4-0
switcher, one of a pair ordered by Gen. Grenville M. Dodge and built by the
Cooke Locomotive Works in the spring of 1888, the other as Denver, Texas & Fort
Worth No. 19, eventually becoming C&S 501. As Ken noted, the 31 was retired
and scrapped in 1906 and in all likelihood never received an electric
headlight. The rather well known photo of the 31, reproduced in "The Colorado
Road," was handed out by the railroad itself, along with a view of engine No.
1, as examples of the road's early motive power. It shows the 31 equipped with
the large box-like kerosene headlight with which it was almost certainly
equipped for its entire life. You say the lamp in your possession is similar
to one in a photo of FW&D 38. The 38 was a second-hand Union Pacific
locomotive acquired by the "Denver" early in the 20th Century, and it lasted
into the 1940s. Outfitted with an electric headlight in the early Teens, it
was subsequently fitted with a newer, more modern headlight. Both of these
electric headlights -- as with the vast majority of locomotive headlights
powered by electricity (Burlington's famous homemade "cuckoo clock" headlights
being a notable exception) -- were round or cylindrical, with illuminated
number boards on each side, either flat on the cylinder or jutting outward on
"wings." So if your headlight is a big (close to 3 feet tall), boxy affair
with a kerosene lamp inside and an exhuast vent on the top, then it could
indeed be from FW&D 31. If, however, it is a smaller cylindrical headlight
illuminated by a single light bulb in the concave reflector, then it almost
certainly was never mounted on the 31, and the fact that it was manufactured by
Buda would seem to date its manufacture to the early 1900s, as electric lights
were replacing oil lamps.
The link to the photo of you headlight was not in your message, so I can't tell
what it looks like.
Hol Wagner
To: CBQ@yahoogroups.com
From: chris.a.kay@comcast.net
Date: Sun, 14 Aug 2011 21:03:35 -0600
Subject: [CBQ] Help finding the history of FW&D engine 31
> My grandfather, Robert W. Armstrong, was a VP of the FW&D railroad. One of
> the souvenirs he collected was the headlamp from engine 31 of the FW&D. I
> can't find a picture of this engine nor any history about the engine. I did
> find this picture of engine 38. The link is here:
>
> http://www.yesteryeardepot.com/FWD38.JPG
>
> I believe the headlamp on engine 38 looks like the headlamp I have installed
> in my backyard. Here's a picture of the headlamp I inherited from my
> grandfather.
>
>
>
> I would really like to know more about the history of the engine and the
> headlamp. The headlamp came with a plate on top describing the manufacturer:
>
> "Buda-Ross"
> Headlamps
> Mfd by
> The Buda Co
> Chicago
>
> There's not much on the Internet about the headlamps or the Buda company. Any
> information about engine 31 or the headlamp would be greatly appreciated.
>
>
> Thank you very much,
>
>
> Chris Kay
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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