page_title: Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad
section_title: 470 series
hierarchical_section_title: Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad / D&SNG engines / Steam / 470 series
caption_attribution_description: English: Durango &amp; Silverton 470 Class 2-8-2 loco No. 473 on arrival at Silverton from Durango Colorado
context_page_description: The Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, often abbreviated as the D&SNG, is a 3 ft narrow-gauge heritage railroad that operates 45.2 miles of track between Durango and Silverton, in the U.S. state of Colorado. The railway is a federally designated National Historic Landmark and is also designated by the American Society of Civil Engineers as a Historic Civil Engineering Landmark.
  The route was originally opened in 1882 by the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad to transport silver and gold ore mined from the San Juan Mountains. The line was an extension of the D&RG 3 ft narrow-gauge line from Antonito, Colorado to Durango. The last train to operate into Durango from the east was on December 6, 1968. The states of New Mexico and Colorado purchased 64 miles between Antonito and Chama, New Mexico in 1970 and operates today as the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad. Trackage between Chama and Durango was removed by 1971.
  The line from Durango to Silverton has run continuously since 1881, although it is now a tourist and heritage line hauling passengers, and is one of the few places in the US which has seen continuous use of steam locomotives.
context_section_description: The 470 series or 2-8-2 K-28 class locomotives were ten engines designed for freight service along the D&RG. They were built by the Schenectady Locomotive Works of the American Locomotive Company (ALCO) in Schenectady, New York in 1923. The K-28s have 28,000 lbf (124.550 kN). of tractive effort, superheated, and the boilers are fed by two non-lifting injectors. Air brakes are 6-ET automatic and also feature a straight air secondary braking system for daily passenger trains. Due to their smaller size these engines are often used on the Durango & Silverton for shorter trains, usually the first or last on the schedule, and often for helper service or sectioned trains. Despite being smaller than the K-36 class locomotives, older, and less powerful, the engine crews tend to favor a trip on these engines because the design ALCO used was superior in balance and servicing. Firing can be tricky when the engine is working hard, as the clam shell-style firedoors tend to pull into the backhead of the boiler due to the draft, and if any flues in the boiler are leaking, the loss of draft on the fire is much harder to work around than on the K-36 locomotives. Firing while the engine is working hard is done with a large "heel" pattern, generally with as little coal on the flue sheet as possible, and gradually sloping the fire bed towards the door sheet to the height or higher than the firedoors. This results in the draft being forced through the fire bed in the thinner areas towards the flue sheet, which usually is hindered by the lack of draft between the grates and the arch brick. New firemen sometimes have a hard time learning this, because the art of "reading" a fire takes time to learn, and the amount of time working on the K-28 class locomotives is far reduced compared to the railroads usual K-36 workhorses, which have a larger firebox and are more forgiving in technique.
  Out of the original ten only three 470s remain, and all are owned by the D&SNG. The other seven were requisitioned by the United States Army in 1942 to be used on the White Pass & Yukon Route in Alaska during World War II. They were later dismantled for scrap in 1946.
  Locomotives 473, 476 and 478 operated on many parts of the D&RGW. Engine 473 served frequently on the Chili Line that operated between Antonito, Colorado and Santa Fe, New Mexico. 473 served on the Chili Line until it was abandoned in 1941. 476 and 478 saw an extensive service on the San Juan passenger train, which ran between Durango, Colorado and Alamosa, Colorado until 1951. 473, 476 and 478 operated on the Silverton Branch from the 1950s through 1980 and are still in service today.
  In July 2015, the D&SNG and C&TS had announced that a trade that proposed that the 478 should go to Chama, New Mexico and in exchange the D&SNG would get K-36 class No. 483, which had not seen operation in several years. Since the swap failed to go through, the D&SNG announced in June 2016 that they were going to restore 476 to operating condition and place 478 in the museum.
  473 is undergoing a firebox rebuild and conversion to oil as of February 2020.
  476 is operational.
  478 is on display in the D&SNG Museum awaiting an overhaul in the distant future.
caption: D&S 2-8-2 K-28 steam locomotive #473 on arrival at Silverton with a train from Durango in June 1990.
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