Frozen toes and mangers - Merry Christmas 2025

 

Girl on tracks near St. Elmo

I love to imagine what it would have been like to live in the time when the C&S narrow gauge was alive and kicking, especially the winter time.  

For me, it's fun to imagine living out stories like those of Charlotte Marrifield, who lived in St. Elmo.  "We very often skied down the hill to go to school.  We had to jump the railroad tracks and we would land in very deep snow.  The trainmen shoveled off the tracks in to twelve or fifteen foot piles on either side of the rails.  One morning my younger brother, when making the jump, landed on the other side of the tracks, upside down buried in the snow.  All I could see were his skis sticking up out of the snow!"

Other times, though, I think of the terrible challenge of running trains in that awful weather.  

Charles C. Squires remembers, "One bitter cold morning with the thermometer indicating 38 degrees

bucking snow above Tunnel Gulch

below zero, we were called to leave Gunnison at 3am.....At Woodstock Tank [,While working on a problem on the last car, my partner] sat down on the edge of the car with his feet hanging over the side of the car.  I told him had had better get up and keep moving about to keep the blood in circulation....After we had set out our train at Hancock and returned to Alpine Tunnel, we all went into the depot for orders and were hovering around the stove when my partner discovered that his feet were frosted and pained him so much that he cried like a baby....We were on the road 82 hours continuous time."

Then I think...nope!, I like learning about life back then from afar!  I'll pass on the frozen toes and long work hours!  

One thing I love about the story of Christmas is that God didn't just look at human life from afar, observing the joys and painful aspects like me looking at my train books.  Instead He incarnated Himself inside human life, even in the most humiliating start as a weak, helpless baby.  

I like how the New Testament book of Hebrews puts it: 

Since the children are made of flesh and blood, it’s logical that the Savior took on flesh and blood in order to rescue them by his death. By embracing death, taking it into himself, he destroyed the Devil’s hold on death and freed all who cower through life, scared to death of death.

It’s obvious, of course, that he didn’t go to all this trouble for angels. It was for people like us, children of Abraham. That’s why he had to enter into every detail of human life. Then, when he came before God as high priest to get rid of the people’s sins, he would have already experienced it all himself—all the pain, all the testing—and would be able to help where help was needed. (Hebrews 2:14-18)

Merry Christmas.

-Kurt

Sources:

Memories of St. Elmo by Charlotte Merrifield with Suzy Kelly

Historic Alpine Tunnel by Dow Helmers

C&Sng Revival review in The Bogies & the Loop

 The Bogies and the Loop, magazine of the Denver South Park & Pacific Railroad Society, wrote a review of my recent book, Colorado & Southern Narrow Gauge Revival.

Breckenridge Blue River Bridge restored!

Here are photos of the rebuilt Colorado and Southern Railway bridge over the Blue River in Breckenridge. Photos courtesy of Gary H. Roberts.

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.