Trains magazine awards $10K to restore No. 168


SANTA FE, N.M. — Trains magazine has awarded its $10,000 2018 Preservation Award to the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic (C&TS) Railroad to complete restoration work on Denver & Rio Grande 4-6-0 No. 168.
When complete late in 2019, the 19th-century locomotive will be the earliest example of a narrow gauge “Ten-Wheeler” operating in North America.
Trains editor Jim Wrinn presented the award Nov. 10 at the Heritage Rail Alliance’s annual meeting in Santa Fe.
The grant will sponsor restoration of No. 168’s boiler jacket — a final touch in the multi-year restoration that will return the  narrow gauge locomotive to operating condition and as it appeared after a 1915 rebuilding.
C&TS was successful among more than 40 applicants in the 20th year of Trains’ $10,000 grant.
Officials with the scenic railroad say the award completes their fund raising goal of $501,000.
“Museums and tourist groups submitted a variety of strong proposals from across the country; locomotives, passenger cars, freight cars, archives — we saw it all,” says Trains associate editor Steve Sweeney, a member of the award selection committee.
“We chose to support the Cumbres & Toltec’s restoration of this locomotive so future generations can see this rare artifact in operation.”
Philadelphia’s Baldwin Locomotive Works built the engine in 1883 for the Denver & Rio Grande.
The locomotive continued in service for another 50 years and retired from the Denver & Rio Grande Western in 1938, when it was made a public park display in downtown Colorado Springs, Colo.
“Nothing quite like this has ever happened before. We are taking a Baldwin locomotive that was specifically built for and used on these tracks in 1883, then retired and placed outdoors in a park for 75 years, and now it is being restored to once again steam across the Rocky Mountains,” says John Bush, Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad president.
In addition to restoring No. 168, Cumbres & Toltec workers are also restoring four wood passenger cars from the same 1880s era so that they will be able to create a complete historic train, just as it would have appeared at that time, steaming over the same tracks.
“We have something rare, an ancient steam locomotive, hand-made. Its wrought-iron frame bears the marks of the craftsmen who labored on it. The frame’s details show how they forge-welded the pedestal jaws,” says Stathi Pappas, the railroad’s assistant general manager and head of special projects. “Now, we’re adding our own marks, writing more narrow gauge history.”
The Cumbres & Toltec is the only organization to twice benefit from the Trains’ Preservation Award. The first time was in 2005 when the Friends of the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad used $10,000 to complete restoration of the original coal wharf in Chama. The unique wooden structure is immediately recognizable in the railroad’s yard.
“It is humbling to have this award join prominent philanthropic foundations and many hundreds of individuals who have contributed,” says Jerry Dziedzic, co-chair of the fundraising team for the restoration of No. 168. “Railroading is an important part of the history of New Mexico and Colorado, and now for the first time we will be able to showcase a historic locomotive specifically built for and used on this railroad in the 1880s.”