The first photo is dated as 1930s or 1940s.
The track from Silver Plume to Georgetown was torn up in March of 1939, if I recall correctly. The offer to Clear Creek towns by the C&S to donate equipment for display did not occur until 1940 or 1941. Therefore, if this caboose was 'dumped' it was not done as a donation as far as I can tell as it had to have occurred when tracks were still in place.
The C&S Railway Society, says that they have seen photos of the dismantling train using 1006 to scrap the Clear Creek line. I haven't looked at those photos yet, but it seems that they are right and therefore the 'dumped' idea can't be reality.
If the caboose was donated in the 1940s, however, it needed to be trucked from the end of track in Idaho Springs to Silver Plume. That is certainly believable as C&S 71 and train had to be trucked to Central City as well.
It seems so odd that the caboose, illustrated above, was set on blocks of wood in what appears to be a dilapidated state. In addition to the wood blocks, notice that the steps from the ends are missing, and the paint is sorely weathered.
Compare this to the spot-clean appearance of C&S 60 and her passenger car (as in the photo at right on her was to Idaho Springs for display in 1941) and C&S 71 and gondola and combine. They were painted in a pristine manner and remained so on their own for a number of years at least until the elements required others to revitalize them.
To add to the mystery, look at the next photo taken by Otto Perry. It is listed as being taken in "196-"
Roughly 20 years after the first photo, the caboose is now on a short stretch of track, the steps have been restored, and the paint appears touched up.
This may have been the work of the Denver O Scale club. Chris Lane stated "I can say for certain that the late 1960s-early 70s work was done" by this group "using paint donated by the 'Q'" (CB&Q). Clearly paint work has been done by the time of this photo, but did they also lay the track? Did they also fix the steps?
3 comments:
Bill,
your previous BlogPost photo shows the steps in place with what appears to me to be, the large "South Park Line" herald so there was some work done earlier.
Chris
in New Zealand
Ah! Excellent point! Hmm...might they have been removed via vandalism or prep for renovation?
I can state with certainty that the Denver O Scale Club did not do any track work. They simply didn't have those sorts of resources. The work they did could best be characterized as "Stop-gap emergency preservation, on a zero budget."
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