Sorry, the inline pictures don't seem to work. Here's the picture as an
attachment. Hopefully this works.
On Aug 16, 2011, at 5:34 AM, Chris Kay wrote:
> Hol:
>
> Thank you very much for the background on my grandfather. R. Wright is how I
> had heard him referred to as well, but didn't know whether that carried over
> to his professional career or not. Unfortunately, I never really knew him.
> He died in 1966 when I was only 5.
>
> Someone else on the distribution list sent me a picture of engine 31 from
> your book, and it is definitely not the same headlamp. The headlamp I have
> looks much more like the one on engine 38 that we found on the Internet. The
> headlight is definitely electric. My older cousin thought the headlight came
> off a second hand locomotive that the FW&D purchased from another railroad.
> Sorry the picture didn't come through. Here's a copy of it. It's about 24"
> tall and 19" deep. I really appreciate any insights you could provide on
> what locomotive this came from.
>
> Thank you very much,
>
>
> Chris
>
>
>
>
> On Aug 15, 2011, at 7:44 AM, HOL WAGNER wrote:
>
>>
>> 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
>>
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>>
>>
>>
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>>
>>
>
>
>
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>
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