Gallumping off the turntable at Colorado & Southern’s Rice Yard in Denver, the 4960 looks like a workaday steam locomotive, heading out for a day’s labor. But the date is October 17, 1963, and the aging O-1-A class 2-8-2 (Baldwin, 1923) has spent the past five years as a roving ambassador for the Burlington, running excursions throughout the Midwest and, for several months, in and out of Denver. In three days, the engine, painted gold, is due in Casper, Wyoming, for a Anniversary Special celebrating 50 years of railroad service to that town. Seven more years of excursion await until, overhauled, retired, sold, and overhauled again, a new, improved 4960s will begin tourist service on Arizona’s Grand Canyon Railway, where she remains in occasional service today.
