View Part One Here:    • Rio Grande Southern 41 Returns to Dur...  

Hey Everyone, it's Big Diehl and we're back with something big... but small...

It's a C-19 Consolidation, which is MUCH smaller than what we're used to seeing here on the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge... But What is this locomotive? Is this the 42 that's in the Roundhouse Museum? No! But, the tender has the same logo... Wait, a C-19? That's the same class as what Hyce ( @Hyce777 ) runs at the Colorado Railroad Museum ( @crrm )... But curses, No, it's not his 346, and its not his 20, though the logo again is of the long gone Rio Grande Southern that ran from Durango to Telluride and on to Ridgeway and Ouray (some flatlanders just can't handle US Highway 550 and the Million Dollar Highway... all scared cause there's a 400-foot drop and no guard rail).

Nope, this is the long ago left for California # 41 from the Rio Grande Southern and has just finished up her rebuild. After years of going and making right turn after right turn at Knott's Berry Farm where it's been on the Ghost Town and Calico Railroad since the 1950's we watch as it goes for A LEFT TURN! After a complete frame off rebuild by the Durango Shop forces in the roundhouse, the 41 left on the 18th of November for a trip to Rockwood and back.

But now we're back on the 27th to watch the final run of a Rio Grande Southern locomotive out Durango for the foreseeable future. Join us as we head to Cascade Canyon and back on the famed 41 of the Ghost Town and Calico Railroad at Knotts Berry Farm in more appropriate surroundings.

Oh... Did we mention the cab ride? Yes, we get up and take a cabride in this historic piece of equipment as it makes left hand curves.

By the time you’re reading this, the venerable consolidation will be heading west to cross the trestle of Ghost Rider, under the shadows of Silver Bullet, the ghost of Montezooma's Revenge and salute at Camp Snoopy… all to get some of Mrs Knott’s Fried Chicken and boysenberry pie.

So let’s make that left turn look for that Distant Signal, oh wait, we’re not delay in block even though we’re out of Yard Limit (though his calling card appears) as we follow this coasterfan adjunct locomotive.