A Beartrap Stack on the Durango & Silverton in 1991

C&S 62 near St. Elmo with
a Beartrap Stack

The Ridgeway Spark Arrestor, also known as the Beartrap Stack, is one of the most defining characteristics of the Colorado & Southern's narrow gauge locomotives. Designed to limit sparks from the engines so as to avoid fires along the right-of-way, it was deemed so effective that even leased engines like those from the D&RGW and CB&Q were equipped with them. 

Back in 1991, my parents took my brother and I on our first trip to Colorado. One of our stops included a ride on the Durango & Silverton. Before our trip we stayed at the Iron Horse Inn. The former Rio Grande tracks ran behind the hotel which gave us a great opportunity to watch D&S trains storm by. Much to my surprise one of these included ex-D&RGW 481 sporting, of all things, a Beartrap Stack. I don't know the reason for its use (other than possibly historical fun), so hopefully this post will elicit some explanation from someone in the know.

Here is some very old, poor quality home movie footage of our visit. No. 481 is the second of the two trains in the video.

Here is a little more info related to the Beartrap Stack from an old post of mine:

As Mac Poor pointed out in a 1948 article, the C&S was often hampered by the problem of causing fires along their rights-of-way and thus eventually created what many now call a "Beartrap Spark Arrestor."  This feature has become nearly synonymous with the Colorado & Southern narrow gauge being eventually applied to all their engines with the exception of No. 70 when it was converted to an oil burner.

In poking around for some info on this contraption I came across two curious sights on the internet.  The first is a photo of unknown origin (at least to me.  I forgot where I found it. Sorry!) showing what appears to be a logging railroad with a massive balloon stack version of a spark arrestor with not just one, but two tubes to drop the cinders along the right of way.

Curiously, it appears that the rail on the left side of the locomotive is not present!

Next, I found a photo of the D&RGW 346 wearing a Beartrap spark arrestor at the Colorado Railroad Museum in a 2015 photo.  No. 346 did wear one of these during the time that the C&S borrowed it in the 1930s, but I didn't know that it sometimes wore it at the museum.  Maybe those of you who are Colorado residents can let me know if this is a regular occurrence or not.