5 Sections of Relaid C&S Track in Platte Canyon and South Park

Here is a look at 5 places you can find C&S rails relaid on the original roadbed in Platte Canyon and South Park. Since the line was abandoned in 1937 and the rails pulled in 1938, a few spots of relaid rails have sprung up. There are five:

5. A stretch of track underneath two gondolas in Pine Grove. Pine Grove History Park was created on Feburary 11, 2020 to memorialize the former railroad servicing location. The town once sported a tall coaling platform that serviced the line's steam engines. The track is on the original roadbed. The gondolas are former Denver, Rio Grande and Western cars, but are painted to honor the Colorado & Southern and the Denver, South Park & Pacific (the C&S' predecessor).

4. A stretch of track underneath a caboose in Helen McGraw-Tatum Memorial Park in Bailey. The caboose is a standard gauge C&S car resting on standard gauge rails, though they are laid on the original narrow gauge roadbed. Near the caboose is the old C&S Mill Gulch bridge and Glenise Way Station, both moved from their original sites in the canyon. Click here to see a video I made of this unique park.

3. A rebuilt portion of the wye on top of Kenosha Pass. The railroad crested Kenosha Pass to enter into the South Park. Helper engines were required for trains to reach the summit. In order to turn the helper engines around, a wye was constructed. One leg and part of another leg of the wye have been rebuilt, the first stretch being constructed in 1998.

2. A small segment of track underneath a caboose in Jefferson. The first depot in the South Park (westbound) is the town of Jefferson. The depot still stands and can be rented by vacationers. The owners, who also operate the excellent Hungry Moose Caboose restaurant next door, also acquired and refurbished a Burlington Northern caboose as a rental. The track under the caboose, though standard gauge, is on the original narrow gauge roadbed.

1. A lot of track at the old division point of Como. A book could be written about the restoration of this former railroad town. The old stone roundhouse, the depot, and the railroad hotel survived the line's abandonment, but since roughly 2016 the entire complex has been undergoing a rebirth. The turntable and tracks into the roundhouse have been restored, along with several other tracks, including stubs representing the mainline east to Denver, west over Boreas Pass to Leadville, and west to the Alpine Tunnel and Gunnison. My video here is a mixture of footage from 2018 and 2022. Much more has been done since. Check out the South Park Rail Society's page for more info. 

1977 C&S news (1) - Visits to Chalk Creek and Platte Canon grades, 1937 Perry photo of C&S freight

A wealth of railfan history exists in the archives of the Rocky Mountain Rail Report, the newsletter of the Rocky Mountain Railroad Club started in 1939.  Here is some miscellaneous South Park Line/C&S-related news from the 1977 editions.   

1977

March
(Traveling past St. Elmo in the winter!)

About the middle of last month, several club members, while wandering around the mountains, drove up

C&S boxcars above St. Elmo 1990s

Chalk Creek Canon to St. Elmo, and then on up the old DSP&P grade about a mile past the town with no problem at all. Probably could have gone all the way to Hancock, were it not for an ice flow across the grade. Imagine, in February.!! The old South Park men and Colorado Midland Hagerman Pass crews would be doing handsprings during a winter like this, although they undoubtedly would be about the only ones in such spirits. 

July

(Hiking the Platte Canon grade)

DIG OUT THOSE WALKING SHOES!!! - One of the closest, yet probably one of the most ignored or forgotten abandoned railroad grades near Denver, will be the setting for the club's 1977 field trip as we set aside Saturday, August 6, for the PLATTE CANYON BUNION POUNDER. This is an interesting and scenic old grade to explore, even though man and mother nature have erased many of the Denver South Park & Pacific's (C&S's) markings in the canyon. However, parts of the grade are still sprinkled with cinders from the hard working little engines, there are old bridges still in place and in use, there are the sparce remains of the Strontia Springs Resort, the fascinating rock walls constructed by the Denver & Rio Grande for their planned line through the canyon but which never supported tie or rail, the Water Department's facilities and dam, and other points of interest are there to inspect. 

1880s Strontia Springs-William Jackson photo

We intend to provide two different methods for visiting the canyon which we hope will allow an opportunity for everyone who desires to participate in the outing. The starting point will be the parking area at the eastern mouth of the canyon near the Denver Water Department's treatment facilities at Waterton (Kassler). We will board a chartered bus at 8:00 A.M. for a ride around to the town of South Platte at the west end of the canyon. Our buses will first join the right-of-way at Pine, and proceed to South Platte, passing by Buffalo Creek, Foxton, Westall Monument, Dome Rock and other stations and attractions along the old South Park line. We will stop for a look at a few of them. At South Platte, we will disembark and proceed to walk through Platte Canyon on the old grade. Points of interest will be noted and explained as we progress. We will hike about seven miles to where the grade has been widened and graveled, and a flatbed truck fitted with sideboards and benches will take us the remaining three miles through Waterton, where our cars will be parked. 

We realize that there are a number of members and friends who, for one reason or another, are not able to walk this distance through the canyon so we have made arrangements to provide a means for those folks to visit the area as well. Also, at 8:00 A.M. , we will be able to take a limited number of individuals through the canyon to South Platte, and return via the same way to Waterton on the sideboard and bench-equipped truck. This is intended for folks who definitely cannot manage to hoof it seven miles. If we catch anybody climbing aboard the truck with a fake cast on their leg, flashing a forged birth certificate stamped with "1870," etc., it will be into the river for them!! 

The hikers should be appropriately dressed and equipped and should bring a lunch and other snacks if desired. At some point, we will stop and eat. Hikers and riders should also bring their own drinking water (it probably will be rather warm in the canyon, depending on the weather of course) and both groups may wish to bring some sort of rain gear if the weather predictions indicate the possibility of afternoon showers. The truck ride may last into the early afternoon; the hike, late afternoon. The canyon is not a difficult hike, as hikes go, as it is entirely on the old grade, is level, and will be taken in a rather leisurely pace. The usual amount of caution should be exercised for a walk of this nature, as there are a few snakes and some poison ivy and oak along the river. 

The cost of those riding the bus will be $4.00, those just riding the truck up and back, $1.00. This will cover the cost of the buses and a little handout that will be provided and allow us to insure that everyone will have a place when they arrive. We think this will turn out to be a fine and rewarding day for all. So just send your money to the club's post office box, and indicate the number in your party, and which group you would like to go with. Capacity is limited, so the earlier the request is sent, the better, as we will have to handle them on a first come, first served basis. Reservations will be accepted through July 27th. If there should be any questions, feel free to call Carl Carlson at 985-0975, Darrell Arndt at 321-2723, or Ed Haley at 477-5978. 

(Otto Perry photo of C&S freight at Waterton)

AFTER TAKING ON WATER at the tank at Waterton, Colorado, Otto Perry photographed this narrow gauge freight as C&S locomotives No. 68 and 69 move forward and prepare to climb through the Platte Canyon. Two more helper engines are cut into the train near the rear end. This photo, taken by Otto on April 1, 1937, is an example of the many photographs he took of Colorado railroads. After thousands of man-hours of research and cataloging by a number of Rocky Mountain Railroad Club members, a catalog of the Otto C. Perry Memorial Collection of Railroad Photographs is now available from the Western History Department of the Denver Public Library. Volume One lists his photographs from the Alabama & Western RR through the Duluth, Winnipeg & Pacific Ry. Quality copies of any of the 11,511 photos may be ordered from the catalog listing. Photo sizes range from postcard to poster size, for individual collections or publications. The frontispiece, incidentally, is an original pen and ink drawing of a D&RGW narrow gauge locomotive by Howard Fogg. The catalog is 8k x 11, includes 18 photos, consists of 424 pages and sells for $6.50 plus $1.00 for postage. A price list is furnished with each catalog. Orders should be sent to the Western History Department, Denver Public Library, 1357 Broadway, Denver, Colorado 80203, with checks payable to same. When work on the remaining photos is completed, Volume II will be printed. 

1963-64 C&S News - Plans to run C&S 9 in Black Hills, Pine Depot burns, Alpine Tunnel visit

A wealth of railfan history exists in the archives of the Rocky Mountain Rail Report, the newsletter of the Rocky Mountain Railroad Club started in 1939.  Here is some miscellaneous South Park Line/C&S-related news from the 1963-1964 editions.

1963 

March

(C&S No. 9)

Club member W. L. Van Patten has sent us the following report about the Black Hills Central Railroad of Hill City, South Dakota: 

The Black Hills Central now has seven steam locomotives: "Klondike Casey," ex-White Pass & Yukon 

No. 9 at Black Hills 1961

2-8-0 No. 69, powers a 5-car train between Hill City and Oblivion on the narrow-gauge portion of the CB&Q Keystone branch, which is three-rail between these points.  "Chief Crazy Horse," ex-Colorado & Southern 3-foot gauge 2-6-0 No. 9, scheduled for new flues, is to handle a 3-car train over the same 10-mile route. (Ed. This is an awfully interesting note.  C&S 9 was leased to the Black Hills by the CB&Q after its last use in the Chicago Railfair of 1949.  It was never run on the Black Hills so this plan never came to fruition.  Instead No. 9 was repatriated to Colorado in 1988 on the orders of the CB&Q's successor Burlington Northern.  She sat on Morning Star siding of the Georgetown Loop in Silver Plume for many years until restored to operation in 2006.  She ran for part of one season and was sidelined.  Later she was sent for display at Highline Railroad Park in Breckenridge, Colorado, where she is today.)

A standard-gauge Baldwin 2-6-2, ex-Prescott & Northwestern No. 7, runs on the 5-mile segment of the Burlington tracks from Keystone up to Oblivion.  Other motive power includes an ex-Sumpter Valley narrow-gauge Shay (currently being re-flued); a narrow-gauge Porter 2-6-0 from Guatemala; an ex-C&NW 2-foot gauge Davenport 0-4-0; and a standard-gauge 10-wheeler, ex-C&NW No. 444. 

In its five years of operation, the Black Hills Central has handled over 150,000 passengers. 

(DSP&P and Pictorial Supplement Book)

December

At a meeting in early 1960 the Club's Board of Directors was advised that Hotchkiss owned a very fine base map of the State, prepared originally in 1913 by the old Clason Map Company but never carried through to publication. Hotchkiss was interested in completing this old map and approached the Club with regard to also incorporating some of the copyrighted detail area maps which had been included in such historical works as Denver, South Park & Pacific, Rails Around Gold Hill, and the Pictorial Supplement to the South Park book, all published by our organization in preceding years. 

1964

(Dow Helmers and his book Historical Alpine Tunnel)

August

Other publications pertaining to railroad history continue to appear. Of interest to Club members is a large volume containing a detailed study devoted entirely to the famous Alpine Tunnel of the old Denver, South Park and Pacific. The volume is the work of Club member Dow Helmers of Pueblo and published by Sage Books of Denver. 

(Alpine Tunnel Exploration - Les Logue)

October

The old South Park's legendary Alpine Tunnel continues to fascinate railfans -- and the general public alike. The September 8 issue of the Denver Post carried an interesting illustrated story of a recent exploration of the tunnel by a group of Leadville, Climax and Boulder people, prominent among whom was Rocky Mountain Railroad Club charter member Les Logue of Leadville. The "Empire" Section of the same paper for the following Sunday, September 13th, published an excellent story on the same subject by Club member Dow Helmers of Pueblo. Dow is author of "Alpine Tunnel," a detailed history of this famous bore published this past summer by Sage Books of Denver.

(Pine Depot Burns, Westall Monument Vandalized)

Pine depot 1951 as antique shop

Also bringing sorrow to railfans in recent weeks were two other items of little importance to the general
public -- one, news that the old South Park depot building at Pine, Colorado built in the late 1870's to serve the little town in the middle reaches of South Platte Canon, was destroyed by fire early Sunday morning, August 30th. (Ed. Pine, today is the site of a display of two narrow gauge gondolas.  They are former Rio Grande cars, one repainted in C&S garb and the other as a DSP&P car).

The second, not even publicized, was the loss by vandalism of the bronze marker placed several years ago by Rocky Mountain Railroad Club members on the granite monument to South Park Engineer Billy Westall who lost his life when DL&G engine 195 ran into a wash in and turned over near Dome Rock on August 28th, 1898.