Hi All,
Since Yahoo strips off all images for the CBQ group, I had Chris send me the
photo of her headlight and I've added it to the Yahoo! Photo Album in the
Photos area of the list. The fast way to get there is to go to the photos
and then click on the Last page.
Dave Lotz
CBQ List Owner
-----Original Message-----
From: CBQ@yahoogroups.com [mailto:CBQ@yahoogroups.com]On Behalf Of Chris Kay
Sent: Tuesday, August 16, 2011 9:04 AM
To: CBQ@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [CBQ] Help finding the history of FW&D engine 31
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 <mailto:CBQ%40yahoogroups.com>
>> From: chris.a.kay@comcast.net <mailto:chris.a.kay%40comcast.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]
>>
>>
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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>
>
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