Hol, thank you for the detailed background. None of our family knew any of
that detail. I did send a copy of the headlamp picture to Dave Lotz and he did
post it to the Yahoo! Photo Album. As you suggest, the headlamp could have
come off the 38. The side plates that are painted "31" look very old to me.
They are actually inverse painted. The plates are translucent white glass
where the number "31" was blocked out and the rest of the plate was painted
black. Looking at the picture of the real 31, the numbering style looks almost
identical. Could the plates have come off the older engine?
On Aug 16, 2011, at 3:16 PM, jjvollet@aol.com wrote:
> Chris: Thanks for ccing me on all your research. Hol Wagner is the preminent
> historian of anything Burlington. I have several of his books. If he can not
> accurately identify the lamp then I guess no one can.
>
> Jay
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Chris Kay <chris.a.kay@comcast.net>
> To: Jay Vollet <jjvollet@aol.com>; Mary Boettcher <mary.boettcher@mac.com>
> Sent: Tue, Aug 16, 2011 9:04 am
> Subject: Fwd: [CBQ] Help finding the history of FW&D engine 31
>
> Joined a users group on Yahoo dedicated to railroad history buffs of the CBQ
> and FW&D railroads. Here's the best response to date. Still tracking down
> the history of the headlamp. Will let you know when I find something. Mary,
> if you could send me a picture of the caboose lights, I'll see if I can find
> out anything about them once I get this mystery solved. I assume the bell
> would have come from the same locomotive as the headlamp. Jay, are there any
> markings on it?
>
> Chris
>
> Begin forwarded message:
>
>> From: HOL WAGNER <holpennywagner@msn.com>
>> Subject: RE: [CBQ] Help finding the history of FW&D engine 31
>> Date: August 15, 2011 7:44:29 AM MDT
>> To: <cbq@yahoogroups.com>
>> Reply-To: CBQ@yahoogroups.com
>>
>>
>> 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]
>>
>>
>
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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