Now back among the living. This view probably pre-1959, when it is said to have gotten a little boiler tube pilot between the footboards in advance of an excursion with enthusiasts.

http://abpr2.railfan.net/abprphoto.cgi? ... /vcry2.jpg

I spend some large portion of my time working on this nice little locomotive and she still looks much the same today. The boiler tube pilot does in fact exist, and the top tender tank has been cut back, but she is much the same locomotive today as she was in that picture.

The major difference that I take note of is the tender trucks. In that picture, she has what I believe are arch bar trucks with elliptical springs on the tender. Can anyone tell me what the shrouds are surrounding the arch bars? Those must have removed from the locomotive before my time because I can't remember ever having seen them, or even seen pictures of the locomotive with them. My thought is that they could be some sort of reinforcing for the truck frame. The tender was originally a 3000 gallon tender. The top tank was added after coming to the VC and added another 3000 gallons to the water capacity and significantly increased the weight. Has anyone seen anything like this before?

Jeff,

I think you will find the tender trucks under one of the carbodies at OERM. It may even be in the building the VC#2 lives in between the monthly fire-ups. I think they are under the SD Electric Ry center entrance car body.

The story is that the water tank addition by the VC increased the load on the old trucks. So the railroad welded the plates to the sideframes to add strength and capacity.

The current tender trucks came from Ajo, Arizona, and were once under a dump car there. The change was made when the tender frame was rebuilt.