I rode D&S in 2005, and C&TS in 2016. Both great rides, but the C&TS was the best. My ride was doubleheaded D&RGW 315 and 463. Near Mud Tunnel:
K-27 "Mud Hen" 463 was sold to cowboy actor and singer Gene Autry in May 1955. Autry never used the engine and donated it to the City of Antonito, Colorado. It was restored by and entered into service on the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad in 1994.
What was their reasoning for two different colors of "cattle" cars? I might guess one was used for cows, their other for sheep?
I really don't know. Most of the narrow gauge stock cars were usually used for sheep. They were either convertible from double level with movable middle floor to accommodate large animals or sheep when the movable floor was mid level. They were typically mineral brown. All my models of standard gauge Rio Grande stock cars are black. Maybe it only had to do with what era the cars were painted. Any other folks out there have any information?
The Spring 2022 Friends Dispatch has an article on the topic: http://www.coloradonewmexicosteamtrain.org/FriendsForum/viewtopic.php?f=211&t=8253 There's also been some recent discussion at the NGDF on it: https://ngdiscussion.net/phorum/read.php?1,438853,438853#msg-438853
Wow, thanks for this Glenn! It's a great article and timely, since I'm modeling stock trains in the 50's. Nice publication as well!
At that same site are every issue of the Dispatch and the earlier Telltale newsletter published by the C&TS Friends: https://www.coloradonewmexicosteamtrain.org/FriendsForum/viewforum.php?f=75 A lot of good information not found in the mainstream publications.
Lately I've had a few "fortuitous intersections", for lack of a better term. Got the sheep Dispatch last year, but the recent NGDF thread was prescient. Another one just today, started modeling the locomotive tender this past Tuesday, OMG rivets! Thousands of little half-spheres in all over the place, then today is a discussion on the OpenSCAD mailing list about the tractability of rendering thousands of spheres...
First run of the newly restored Galloping Goose on June 3, 1998. Departing Chama. Stop at Osier. The commemorative Post Mark.