Model Train Journal

Bob noticed that I have not kept up with the doorstop thread. As it is, I have been derailed for the week with a trip to Denver with brother Pete. It was mostly family business, but we did get a couple of hours at the Colorado Rail Museum in Golden. We timed it well, in that we got to see a locomotive unloaded:













This came from the Durango and Silverton and was purchased by CRM to pull their tourist train around their small loop. We were told it originally came from somewhere in Alaska. Those weird trucks make one think it was built for a mining operation or something similar.

I will be back soon with the doorstops.
Jim

Fortuitous indeed and hope you both are having a good time!

My understanding was that loco came from a steel mill in Canada, Ontario sticks in the mind. The big news there is D&S has replaced it with a number of those White Pass & Yukon Alco roadswitchers to run during fire-threat season. They are scaled down Centuries from the late 60s and were trademark locos on White Pass for years.

NDGF thread about that: D&SNG #7 Big Al move to new home.

Would you mind if I reposted your images to that thread?

Yeah that was good day, multiple BNSF freights with a variety of SD-40's and SD-70AC's and MAC's on the busy Beer Line to Golden then this

According to Wiki "Diesel engine #7, nicknamed the "Big Al", is an 87-ton center-cab Diesel built by General Electric in 1975 and was originally Algoma Steel #7, from Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. Big Al is named after the current owner of the D&SNG, Allen C. Harper."
One of the CRM guys told me they acquired #7 because the smaller #4 here to the right (GE 50 toner likewise acquired earlier from the D&SNG) has turned out to be a tad anemic pulling the museum's four car Saturday trips around their loop. That tiny Plymouth shop critter #3 to the left, is a former US Gypsum unit that has alternately worked the Georgetown Loop operation.
Good day indeed though we both got a little sun baked watching all this as the crane company and CRM staff understandably were very cautious and took their time. Worth the wait though.

Those narrow gauge GEs are neat -- their couplers are truck mounted and so they swing as the trucks pivot. If I'm remembering correctly, the smaller ones, like the "Golden City & San Juan" #4 in the photo, have their two trucks pinned together under the center of the unit, so they make really interesting motions on curves. Big Al" #7 has a fuel tank between its trucks, so its trucks are not pinned together, but its steps are truck mounted, so those swing out on curves (like Lionel diesels.)

Here's a photo of #7 pulling two coaches on the D&SNG back in 2014: Railpictures.net #550521
Note the small cab and how the fireman is riding the platform.

Yeah #7 does suggest the Lionel GE centercab (have two of them) with its truck mounted steps.
Those plate sided trucks with the inboard wheels though are IMO quite odd looking. Viewing the trucks from the top, the side plate is quite thick too such that I'd assume they impart a significant amount of weight to the unit's tractive effort.
Literally an "Industrial Grade" design.