C&Sng Revival Book Trailer 3

 Here's another sneak peek at my book Colorado & Southern Narrow Gauge Revival, this time with a look at C&S engine No. 74.

Colorado & Southern Narrow Gauge Revival is now available to order at

South Platte Press 

Rons Books 

South Park Line Book 

N Scale Supply 

C&Sng Revival Book at Omaha Train Show

 Phil Reisdorff of South Platte Press displayed my book at the Dec. 6-7 Nebraska-Iowa Railroaders Holiday Train & Toy Show, Dec. 6-7.

It's been fun to see it out there!

Historic C&S bridge in Breckenridge rebuilt!

Back in early 2025 Breckenridge History contacted Bob Schoppe, president of the DSP&P Historical Society, for help with research related to the C&S trestle bents still standing in the Blue River in Downtown Breckenridge. Their goal was to reconstruct a historical accurate replica of part of the trestle with rails and all. Bob reached out to others on the C&Sng Forum and took the gathered information back to Breckenridge History. 

Bob noted that "Wes Pfarner, the librarian/archivist at the Friends library in Albuquerque provided generic specs on wood trestles from 'A treatise on wooden trestle bridges according to the present practice on American railroads'.  It looks really close (albeit std guage) but I am not certain."

He also pointed out that "Breckenridge History (formerly Breckenridge Heritage Alliance) has done a lot for preserving RR history in Summit County.  The Railroad Park in Breck is amazing and they have also supported our work in Como.  Restoring that short section of trestle over the Blue river would be, quite simply, really cool."

The great news is that work is now complete and only awaits the historical signage. The DSP&P Historical  Society provided all the rail used for the display. The work had a long-term vision as well: BH placed sleeves (fiberglass filled with epoxy) around the pilings to strengthen them. Bob pointed out, "[BH] said that the wood above water was well 'weatherworn' but below the water was in excellent shape."

Below are photos of the work taken by Larry Crispell of BH.

Book trailer No. 2 for C&S Narrow Gauge Revival

I put together another book trailer video with a small teaser on the story of Colorado & Southern 2-8-0 No. 60's story of restoration.

Colorado & Southern Narrow Gauge Revival is now available to order at

South Platte Press 

Rons Books 

South Park Line Book 

N Scale Supply 

A Beartrap Stack on the Durango & Silverton in 1991

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

The Ridgway 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.

A book trailer for my new C&S book-Enjoy!

 I put together a trailer with a small taste of my book Colorado & Southern Narrow Gauge Revival. If you know someone who might be interested, please pass it along.

Thanks to everyone who has already ordered the book. We've gone onto a second printing. It's encouraging to see the interest in both the Colorado narrow gauge and in narrow gauge restoration history.

Enjoy,

Kurt

The Locos We Lost - Part 5

 

In part 3 of "The Locos We Lost" series of posts, I noted that in April 1941, the same month that Central City won its fight with the Burlington (who resisted requests from the town for a while) to display C&S consolidation No. 71, gondola 4319, and combine No. 20, an article in the 

Denver Public Library Special Collections,
OP-6098, 1938 Otto Perry photo

Jefferson County Republican stated, "Plans were underway this week in Golden, to try to secure an old narrow gauge engine, coach and caboose from the Colorado & Southern, as a historical exhibit."  The article's author comments that "In the years to come, tourists would regard such an exhibit of considerable interest, and local citizens would likewise value it highly."

I surmised that the most likely candidate for this Golden display would have been either C&S 69 or 70 since engines 74, 75, & 76 were still at work on the Leadville-Climax stretch.  

However, I recently re-read Tom and Denise Klinger's Clear Creek Memories and Then Some and noticed an article on page 152 that I missed the first time around confirming exactly which engine Golden set its eyes on.

The article, titled "Last Rails of C&S" tells of the work train that scrapped the Clear Creek line.  It notes, "Ed Osborne was engineer and Brownie Anderson, fireman of locomotive No. 69 that pulled the work train, the last of the old engines to travel on these rails.  M. R. Wood was brakeman.  An effort is being made to park No. 69 in an appropriate place in Golden as a historical monument to the part played by the Colorado & Southern Railway Company in the development of Golden and the rich mining districts of Gilpin and Clear Creek Counties."

On the previous page of the Klingers' book they quote from the May 15th, 1941 Colorado Transcript, "Messrs. Coors and Duvall have conferred with Robert Rice, vice president of the C&S railroad and are hopeful that the city will be able to secure an early day engine and one or two cars.  It is planned to install this on a short section of track."  

The Klingers conclude with "Alas, the efforts by Golden to obtain a historic engine and car did not come to fruition."