Published: March 20, 2013
No. 463 steamed up in Antonito last week.
Photo by Friends of the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic RailroadANTONITO, Colo. – Under powder-blue skies, crews at the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad stoked a fire in the belly of their K-27 steam locomotive, No. 463, for the first time in 10 years. “It was really low key. We got the pictures around 10:40 a.m. last Wednesday,” Tim Tennant says. “Quite a site to see the steam and smoke and got enough pressure in it to blow the whistle.”
Tennant is president and CEO of the Friends of the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad and talked with Trains News Wire earlier this week. While he watched steam rise in No. 463 on March 13, he was watching 2 years of efforts and $1.3 million in overhauls put to the test. During restoration, the boiler was rebuilt in Alabama while the frame went to Monte Vista. Volunteers worked on other pieces and reassembled the entire Mikado-type 2-8-2 steamer in Antonito.
Tennant says that the 463 ran under its own power for the first time on March 15 and will likely be out with maintenance of way crews hauling ballast and work materials in late winter and early spring. Putting the locomotive on a work train will help crews fine-tune its performance and help ready it for the railroad's opening to the public in May.
“I have to give a lot of credit to the Cumbres & Toltec shop crews. They are the guys that worked on it the last four months,” Tennant says. “They worked hard to meet this date.”
Cumbres & Toltec No. 463 is one of only two Baldwin Locomotive Works-built K-27s remaining. The other, No. 464, operates on the Huckleberry Railroad near Flint, Mich. No. 463 was originally saved from decay by western music legend Gene Autry. He later donated the locomotive to the city of Antonito, which, in-turn, donated it to the railroad in 1994. No. 463 ran operated from then until 2002, when a broken side-rod put it out of service.
Tennant says the Friends organization and the railroad hope to pull a special charter run the week of May 20, the week coaches will move from Antonito to Chama for seasonal service.
- Locomotive 463 3-13-13
