04-02-2016, 02:19 PM
I'm not sure I can follow your reasoning. The F&CC RR needed to keep expenses down, so why double-head when single geared loco could do the job with greater facility? No unions back then, so no pressure to maintain jobs.
The coal mines were an interesting set up. They supplied everyone's needs from Cripple Creek and the mine steam engines to the home and business heating locally, but by far the biggest customer of all was CCI - Colorado Coal and Iron, later to become Colorado Fuel and Iron - and the insatiable steal mills and furnaces nearby in Pueblo, so much so the CCI ran it's own railroad.
Next down from that were the gold mining operations, stamping mills and refineries - the refineries were initially located in Florence at the terminus of the F&CC RR, and of course, the railroads themselves. Due to a severe shortage of decent trees in this part of the country, coal was the fuel of choice and Cripple Creek alone was home to eight railroads, all of whom had voracious appetites for fuel.
In fact, according to my reference histories, the expansion of the railroads throughout Colorado went from areas with coal mines to similar areas to facilitate obtaining fuel, and the entire Florence-Rockvale-Canon City area was a major hub from the very beginning, and while the mines were certainly interested in maximizing their sales, the railroads were not interested in maximizing their costs any more that they had to to remain operational.
But, as I said earlier, my area is merely a microcosm of the entire Narrow Gauge Circle servicing all of the mines and towns of Colorado, many of which were at the top of step, twisting climbs high up into the mountains. The Argentine RR, for example, ran the route through the Alpine Tunnel, and stiff climb to 11,400 feet just to pass under the Continental Divide and trains were routinely double-headed when they needn't have been. And so it was with the majority of the high mountain mining communities, all of which could benefited enormously from the more servicable geared locomotives.
The mines near Leadville were also over 11,000 feet, making that climb a stiff and costly one for the Baldwins and Consolidations of the day, and again, geared would have been the right answer to an easy problem: significantly greater hauling power up steep grades without the need for double-heading.
So the question remains: why weren't they used when by all standards of efficiency, profit and servicability they should have been?
The coal mines were an interesting set up. They supplied everyone's needs from Cripple Creek and the mine steam engines to the home and business heating locally, but by far the biggest customer of all was CCI - Colorado Coal and Iron, later to become Colorado Fuel and Iron - and the insatiable steal mills and furnaces nearby in Pueblo, so much so the CCI ran it's own railroad.
Next down from that were the gold mining operations, stamping mills and refineries - the refineries were initially located in Florence at the terminus of the F&CC RR, and of course, the railroads themselves. Due to a severe shortage of decent trees in this part of the country, coal was the fuel of choice and Cripple Creek alone was home to eight railroads, all of whom had voracious appetites for fuel.
In fact, according to my reference histories, the expansion of the railroads throughout Colorado went from areas with coal mines to similar areas to facilitate obtaining fuel, and the entire Florence-Rockvale-Canon City area was a major hub from the very beginning, and while the mines were certainly interested in maximizing their sales, the railroads were not interested in maximizing their costs any more that they had to to remain operational.
But, as I said earlier, my area is merely a microcosm of the entire Narrow Gauge Circle servicing all of the mines and towns of Colorado, many of which were at the top of step, twisting climbs high up into the mountains. The Argentine RR, for example, ran the route through the Alpine Tunnel, and stiff climb to 11,400 feet just to pass under the Continental Divide and trains were routinely double-headed when they needn't have been. And so it was with the majority of the high mountain mining communities, all of which could benefited enormously from the more servicable geared locomotives.
The mines near Leadville were also over 11,000 feet, making that climb a stiff and costly one for the Baldwins and Consolidations of the day, and again, geared would have been the right answer to an easy problem: significantly greater hauling power up steep grades without the need for double-heading.
So the question remains: why weren't they used when by all standards of efficiency, profit and servicability they should have been?