Louis: The photo of the 6300 is in fact at Denver, at the C&S Seventh Street engine facilities. All 10 of the M-3s (6300-6309, which, incidentally, were built for the NC&StL but transferred by the USRA to the Q upon completion) were leased to the C&S in 1927 upon delivery of the first group of M-4 2-10-4s to the Q. The Q would not sell them outright to the C&S but instead collected a per diem charge (which as I recall was $5 per day) for the next 25 years or so until the last of the group were retired from service in 1953. By doing this the Q eventually received more from its subsidiary than it would have through an outright sale. On the C&S the 10 joined five identical sisters allotted by the USRA to the C&S (as 905-909), and the entire group was popular with the C&S for all the reasons Jonathan listed from my text in The Colorado Road. The C&S hauled a great deal of southern Colorado coal and Wyoming iron ore, in which service the railroad usually employed its 2-10-2s of the Q's M-2 and M-2-A designs (C&S 900-904 and 910-914) because with their smaller drivers they were better drag engines. The USRA locomotives were used by the C&S primarily for Red Ball merchandise service and general freight service. In addition to the Q M-3s, the C&S at any given time from the early 1940s through about 1950 also had on lease from the Q three or four O-2-A Mikados and around five M-2-A Santa Fes. The Mikes were used between Pueblo, Trinidad and Texline (most often south of Trinidad), while the Q 6100s were used between Denver and Pueblo and north from Denver to Cheyenne and Guernsey. As a partial offset for the lease of these locomotives, the Q leased all four of the C&S E-4-A Mikados (which were essentially O-1s with smaller 55-inch drivers) and two or three of the C&S B-4S 2-8-0s, which had been built as tandem compounds and, after conversion into simple engines in the 1920s, were the most powerful Consolidations on the C&S. The Q used all of these leased engines as switchers, the Mikes in Minneapolis, Kansas City and on the Creston Division, primarily at Pacific Junction. Additionally offsetting the leased Q power, the Q took C&S C-3H1 Ten-Wheelers for use on the Edgemont-Deadwood passenger local in the Black Hills after that train was assigned all-steel cars that the previously assigned Q K-2 engines could not handle. I'm attaching a few views of the M-3s, including an O.H. Means view of 6304 outside the West Burlington shop in about 1923; a view of 6309 beside the twin wooden water tanks at the C&S Denver engine terminal in 1928, not long after its arrival out west; a shot of 6308 at Seventh Street in Denver, showing how ugly a Q cuckoo clock headlight looked centered on the smokebox door of one of these engines; and finally my favorite view of the USRA 2-10-2: a Dick Kindig photo of C&S 906 and Q 6308 leaving Denver with a northbound 40-car extra freight on the morning of one of the most infamous dates in American history, Dec. 7, 1941. This last one I'll send separately, as it will take this post beyond 10 MB. Hol
To: cbq@yahoogroups.com From: CBQ@yahoogroups.com Date: Wed, 28 Jan 2015 12:54:25 -0500 Subject: [CBQ] Seasonal Use Of Gondolas On The Q [2 Attachments]
January 28, 2015
Group - I thought the inserted/attached CB&Q publicity photograph of
Class M-2-A No. 6132 with a long train of wood gondolas loaded with coal would
interest members. The undated view was taken at Bushnell, IL:
No. 6132 was built by Baldwin in 1915 and faithfully served the Q until
being retired in May 1954. From the sharp exhaust, it appears this extra coal
drag has just gotten a high ball from the tower and the engineer has the Johnson
bar down in the corner and is latching out the throttle. I can almost hear it
bark....
As for comments earlier about the relative merits of the different Class M
locomotives, I've seen very few images of the USRA Class M-3 locomotives in coal
service in southern Illinois so I suspect they were dispatched to Lines West and
the C&S rather quickly. The following inserted/attached image shows class
leader No. 6300 at the Centralia, IL, coaling tower in 1938. Note the large
"can" headlight:
No. 6300 was later leased to the C&S. Constructed by Brooks in 1919,
the locomotive was retired in July 1953. All the USRA Class M-3 locomotives were
retired during 1953 and 1954. Despite their lack of suitablity for coal drags in
southern Illinois, No. 6300 and its sisters all contributed their fair share of
ton miles on Lines West and the C&S. Best Regards - Louis
Louis Zadnichek II
Fairhope, AL
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Posted by: Hol Wagner <holpennywagner@msn.com>
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CB&Q 6304, W. Burlington, Iowa, c. 1924, O.H. Means photo, Corbin-Wagner coll..jpg
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CB&Q 6309, Denver, Colo., on C&S, 1928, O.C. Perry photo, Hol Wagner coll..jpg
Description: JPEG image
CB&Q 6308, Denver,Colo., on C&S, 19, O.C. Perry photo, Hol Wagner coll..jpg
Description: JPEG image
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