Sunday, April 24, 2011

1917 Crater Wreck Photos

One Kristen Cormick was kind enough to forward along some photos that were taken by a family member all those years ago.





Wenatchee railroad historian, Mike Bartenstein, had the following to say after viewing these photos:

"From the info submitted in your blog and the photos you recently acquired and forwarded, I believe the photos match up to the blog info. The blog mentions loco # 1009. In looking at the photos and data sheets in the new GN Steam Engine Book and comparing with the Cormick photos you sent, there are enough similarities for me to feel that there is a match. Upon viewing the one Cormick photo with the most detail of the loco, I could see the number 10 on what is left of the cab side (is 09 obscured?), that the drive wheels are large diameter, the pilot truck wheels are spoked, the steam chest has piston valves, the front steam chest covers are multi-piece, the valve mechanism is Walschaerts, the reverser bar is located above the running board, and the distance from the front of the air tank mounted below the running board to the reversing mechanism is fairly short.

"In looking at other pictures in the Steam Book, I came upon a picture of the GN 1445. A lot of mechanical things visible in the Cormick photo appear on the 1445, with one exception, the distance from the air tank to the reverse mechanism is much longer, which causes me to eliminate the 1445 from consideration. In looking at the data info between the 1009, class E-14, and the 1445, class H-4, I found that the two locos were built within months of each other by Baldwin in 1909, both have 73" drivers, both have the same type and size steam chests, both have the Walschaerts valve mechanism."

After reviewing the photos, we came to the conclusion they were from the Crater wreck I posted here.

Note that the name "Trinidad" encompasses a large part of this particular area of Lynch Coulee, and not many people outside of the railroad knew of the station named Crater.

3 comments:

MB Line said...

Great Stuff Dan! You seem to be on quite a "gold mine" of information lately. Keep up the good work.

Darrin

SDP45 said...

Thanks! Got more interesting stuff coming up.

Dan

Anonymous said...

Great work, Dan! I'm glad you were able to verify the story on these! Thanks so much.
~ Kristen