Built by the Brooks Locomotive Works in Dunkirk, NY, #6638 is one of nineteen Class B-4-R Consolidation type (2-8-0) locomotives delivered to the Colorado & Southern in 1906
(#600-#643). It weighs 194,180 lbs, 175,000 lbs on its 56” drivers with a 15’ 4” driver wheelbase and 23’ 8” engine wheelbase. With 22” x 28” cylinders, a 34.66 sq ft grate, 210.53 sq ft firebox and total heating surface of 2,992 sq ft, it operated at a boiler pressure of 205 psi delivering 42,169 lbs tractive effort. The tender weighs 112,880 lbs light with a capacity of 6,000 gallons of water and 10 tons of coal.
The Brooks locomotives brought the C&S B-4-R roster to forty four. Many of the class were later superheated and, although retirements started as early as the late 1920s, they operated into the 1960s. Long after the rest of the road had been dieselised, the C&S continued to use steam on its Climax-Leadville branch as the thin air at the high altitude of Leadville (10,152’) severely hampered the operation of internal combustion engines. #638 ran a few excursions in 1962 on the Moffatt line. That year, it was donated to the City of Trinidad, CO, and is on display on Purgatoire Drive.
