After a very brief guest appearance at KOPS, C.V.S.Ry. locomotive #8 recently entered service. Appropriate roster photos have been taken and posted in our Roster Album and duplicated here for your perusal…

Candlewood Valley Scenic Railway’s locomotive #8 is a Class 70 2-8-0 Consolidated type built in 1881 by the Baldwin Locomotive Works of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. First delivered to the Denver & Rio Grande and numbered 409 it carried the name Red Cliff. The name was later changed to Red Buttes it served the D&RG until 1916. The Rio Grande Southern railroad purchased 409 and in 1918 was re-painted for R.G.S. and renumbered 41. Number 41 Served the RGS until it shut down in 1951. As luck would have it, the Knott’s Berry Farm theme park was looking for locomotives for a new park railroad. Number 41 went to Knott’s where it wore many paint schemes, most recently a late RGS scheme. Recently rebuilt at Knott’s , 41 came to the C.V.S.Ry. in April of 2017. Now re-lettered for the Candlewood Valley Scenic Railway, number 8 still pays homage to its heritage by carrying the R.G.S. initials on the cab.

Here #8 is seen lettered as RGS #41 at Knott’s Berry farm prior to being leased to the Candlewood Valley…

Looks good, Jon.

Did you ever get your battery issue straightened out?

Yes. I needed to take off the tender shell so I could get better access to the screw terminal where things came loose. Not sure if there was a piece of broken wire stuck in it, or the spring clip was bent, but I fixed it. One 14.8V pack had 4 completely flat cells, another had one dead cell. I was able to fix the one with the bad cell using a spare I had. The one with 4 flat cells is going in the recycle bin at Lowes. Now I have two spare PCB’s so I’m looking to buy some more solder tab cells to build up a few more packs. Thinking of trying some brand other than Tenergy cells.