Porter Steam Locomotives

Might contact these folks at the Colorado Railroad Museum and ask them.

Check the NMRA. They have published a book on the Porter Steam Locomotives. Only $14.95. Go to the company store and check under none-member store. It is on the second or third page.

Howard Garner NMRA lifer

Also, contact the Denver Public Library and their Western Heritage section. They have mucho, mucho pix and documents on Colorado and western history.

I recently bought a copy of the Porter book from the NMRA - it's a very good reference. The first 24 pages are a brief history of the Porter Co. with several builder's photos from the NMRA's collection. The next 152 pages are a reprint of the 13th edition of the Porter catalog (I don't find a date for this ed. but it appears to be near 1920). The last 148 pages is a nearly complete list of every Porter loco built by construction number, color highlighting those locos whose builder's photos are available from the NMRA library. Basic data is provided for C/N 2884, but no photo. This roster indicates it was built in 8/1903 for the Bald Mountain RR (Occidental Development Corp.) as their #1. It would take more review of this list to see if BMRR had any sisters, and to correlate the loco's stats to the illustrated catalog offerings.

The old "Colorado's Mountain Railroads" series by Lemassena in the 1960's provides a tidbit, that the 3' gauge Bald Mountain RR transferred coal to the D&RGW at Occidental, CO. My old Colorado RR map shows that Occidental was about half way between La Veta and La Veta Pass on the line west from Walsenburg. Hope this helps. Geezer

Does that book include the Porter locomotives sent to Japan in the 1880s?

From a quick scan of the original buyer locations listed, I see:

2 2-6-0 to Hokkaido in 4/1880 2 2-6-0 to Hokkaido in 4/1882 1 2-6-0 to Hokkaido in 4/1884 1 2-6-0 to Hokkaido in 1/1885 2 2-6-0 to Hokkaido in 3/1889 As I say - quick, but these are where my eye caught "Japan" instead of a US State. Geezer

Thanks.

I have the models MicroAce made of the Japanese Porter locomotives. They are very nice models. These same models are being imported by Atlas with American road names. I think that is a funny twist of fate.