A ten-drivered Harmonic Convergence!

Dan's Train Depot is offering a whole slew of models (including the pilot models) of an all time favorite of mine, the D&RGW F-81 class 2-10-2 in two configurations: as they looked in the 1920s, and the 1940s (more photos here). Both were imported by Pacific Fast Mail in 1978, and all of these models appear to have come from the PFM collection, which Dan's seems to be liquidating. At 32 years of age they stand an excellent chance of outlasting the prototypes, which were turned out from Alco's Brooks Works at Dunkirk, NY in 1917 and went into the furnaces at Pueblo, CO in the early 1950s. When L.F. Loree surveyed the Grande in September, 1917 they were working between Minturn and Salida as helpers, but they soon went to Utah to lug coal drags over Soldier Summit. When they were built, they were the biggest nonarticulated engines in the world - and the Grande crews promptly nicknamed them "submarines." Someone composed a quatrain:

they built me for a submarine
but they had no guns
so they sent me to the Rio Grande
to haul ten thousand tons.

They did, too- they were rated for 81,200 pounds of tractive effort, which was big even for a 2-10-2.

There are some pictures of them as delivered in Jackson Thode's book of George L. Beam's corporate photography. There have been two runs of brass imports- the 1978 PFM Crowns, and a 2004 Precision Scale run. Neither captures them precisely as built, but for my money, the PFM early version probably comes the closest. Aesthetically speaking, the earlier version is more appealing - there are no awnings to conceal the curve of the arched cab window, and the engines themselves are cleaner - there are fewer appliances, such as the overfire air jets, which no doubt improved combustion (Brooks engines were notoriously poor steamers) at the expense of appearance. The earlier versions also include a tiny little Vanderbilt tender that's nothing but curves and catwalks, with a little doghouse perched slightly off the centerline just behind the coal bunker. These were always a reminder of just how far the infrastructure of the "Dirty, Ragged and Greasy" lagged behind its locomotive purchases, but they were a requirement - longer tenders would not have fit on most of the turntables the Grande owned in 1917. As an aesthetic thing, I think small tenders always improve the appearance of a steam engine - they make the engine appear proportionately larger, and it's nice when they have as much visual interest as these do.

Coincidentally, the Colorado Railroad Museum chose the same moment to announce its latest Rail Annual - Bob LeMassena's book on Decapod locomotives. It sounds as if they've stretched the definition of "decapod" to "five coupled engine," which is fine - save for the old PFM book on the Texas types, there aren't too many studies out there, and lots of interesting classes are almost unchronicled - the Northern Pacific's interesting pair, the Lehigh Valley engine that gave the type its name, and the Baldwin heavy, to name only a few - so I look forward to the treatment. And at $60, it's a lot cheaper than those pilot models!