C&S refrigerator car and boxcar at Magic Mountain 1959

 In 1959 Magic Mountain opened in Colorado. It was a theme park styled after the stunningly successful new Disneyland. In keeping with Disneyland's design they constructed a narrow gauge train ride. To get narrow gauge rolling stock the park reached out to Bob Richardson who was in the process of moving equipment from the original Narrow Gauge Museum in Alamosa to the new Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden.

In a heartbreaking but financially prudent move  to raise money for the fledgling museum’s new building,   the museum sold two of its C&S cars, refrigerator 1116 and boxcar 8308, to Magic Mountain along with Rio Grande Southern engine 42, D&RGW high side gondola 1187,  and RGS caboose 0409  for use on the tourist-hauling park train. 

In the video below you can see glimpses of this train starting at 1:31.

The pocket book was tight and unfortunately these pieces of C&S lore filled the needy coffers.  Still, Bob appreciated  that the cars were given a chance to do what they were designed to do: haul cargo on steel rails, albeit human cargo this time.  To do this, though, unlike the RGS engine, the cars lost most of their historic appearance and design in the process of being turned into smaltzy open-air theme park pieces.   Much of the two C&S cars’ half-century old character was destroyed as everything but their frames and running gear were ripped out and discarded, only to be replaced by seats and rider car shells. 

Sadly, Magic Mountain closed up in less than a year. The cars moved around many times, even becoming part of a restaurant at the site. 

Today, 1116 still operates on the Georgetown Loop. 8308's frame and trucks are at the Colorado Railroad Museum.

The tales of C&S boxcars 8308 and 8310

 There's an odd, hard-to-see narrow gauge car at the Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden. Surprisingly, it is a combination of two former Colorado and Southern Ry. boxcars, one of which also served on the Rio Grande Southern. While one car was rescued from demolition while being a shed, the other was rescued, sold, became a tourist car, served as a food stand, and finally came back to her rescuer. C&S boxcars 8308/8261 and 8310 now rest together at Golden's museum. This video tells their meandering histories.

C&S Stock Car 7064 History: C&Sng at the CRRM

It had been a long time since I had the chance to visit the Colorado Railroad Museum (since my teens!).  About a month ago, my family had the chance to visit and we tracked down each bit of C&S/DSP&P equipment there.  This is the first of what I hope will be a series of videos telling the post-C&S history of each historic piece.

For a more full story of the CRRM C&Sng equipment, see my series The Railroad Riches of Golden.

The first C&S piece I wanted to highlight is this 1900-built 50,000 pound livestock car No. 7064.

1973 C&S News - M.C. Poor passes, High Country RR is born, DSP&P 191 returns to CO

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 1973 editions.  No C&S-related info showed up in the 1972 editions

1973

May

(Mac Poor's Passing)

MEMBERS OF THE RMRRC will be saddened to hear of the passing of Mac Poor, one of Colorado's
foremost railroad historians, and the author of one of the most famous railroad histories ever published, "DENVER, SOUTH PARK & PACIFIC” (1949), He died Tuesday, April 17, 1973 at St. Joseph Hospital in Denver, after a short illness. 

Mr. Poor was a long time member of the Rocky Mountain Railroad Club, and was well liked by all those who knew him, either personally, or as a fellow railfan and history buff.  He was also a member of the Denver Posse of the Westerners, the Colorado Consistory A & A S R, the Union Lodge #1 of the Odd Fellows, and was active in the Highlands Methodist Church. 

Poor holding up the result of his 10 year journey

Born in Caledonia, Washington County, Missouri, on June 28, 1901, Mr. Poor lived in Chicago for many years, retiring in Texas in 1950, and moving to Denver in 1952. 

His interest in the South Park Railroad began with visits to Colorado in the early 1930's.  In 1938, he began gathering material for a complete history of the famous branch of the Colorado & Southern Railway.  Ten years of devoted work went into the compilation and preparation of this material and his book was published by the Rocky Mountain Railroad Club in 1949.  It has since become one of the most sought after railroad books in the World. 

In 1959, he co-authored “PICTORIAL SUPPLEMENT TO DENVER, SOUTH PARK & PACIFIC”, and had previously written short histories of the Denver, Boulder & Western Railroad and the Argentine Central Railway. 

He was buried in Bonham, Texas. Mr, Poor is survived by his wife, Cleta, and a brother, George L. Poor of Sunnyvale, California.  A Mac Poor Memorial Fund has been established at the Highlands United Methodist Church, West 32nd Avenue and Osceola St, Denver, Colorado 80212, 

April

(High Country Railroad is Born)

HIGH COUNTRY RAILROAD at Heritage Square, Colorado's newest railroad, a 24" gauge, 1 ½ mile scenic tourist line, is the result of the efforts of 5 Rocky Mountain Railroad Club members. Stuart Anderson. Jim Ehernberger, Ed Gerlits, Dave Gross, Dan Peterson and non-member Jim Karins. 

Three years ago, they acquired 2 German built 0-4-0's and during the course of time completely overhauled one of the locos to an extent she never enjoyed before. Resplendent in 11 coats of orange and black automotive enamels, with new electric headlight, flues, steam fittings, lubricators. etc., the group invited the RMRRC members to share in their enthusiasm of operating for the first time over a short piece of track on the Anderson Farm near Boulder. 

The group subsequently faced the problem of what to do with a completely overhauled locomotive. Does one just play with her or put her to work in come capacity? The group chose to formally incorporate and find a place to operate. Soon they emerged with a lease from the Woodmoor Corporation, tore up the old 3' gauge of the former Magic Mountain RR, graded and relaid the track to 2’ gauge. Two new excursion cars were commissioned and built by the Great Western Ry in Loveland, Colorado, a private car was acquired and shipped from Indiana, air brakes applied to the cars and by October 1, 1972, the High Country RR was in full operation. 

The line, complete with high fills, deep cuts, trestle, show shed and whistle echo's winds around the foothills, around Lake Heritage and back through the woods on its return to the station. The line overlooks Golden and Denver and has beautiful scenic vistas. 

Heritage Square can be reached by traveling West on 6th avenue to U.S, 40, then West on U.S. 40, ¾ mile to the entrance. The railroad will be operating daily service from May 1, 1973 to October 31, 1973. The fare is $1.00 for adults and $0.50 for children and under 5 free. The address is: High Country Railroad, P.O. Box 404, Heritage Square Station, Golden, Colorado 80401 

(The High Country Railroad is not directly C&S-related, but is listed here because the previous them park railroad at Magic Mountain, which later became Heritage Square, included the use of two ex-C&S cars refrigerator car 1116 and boxcar 8308.  Both were converted to rider cars.  There was a brief hope that the original Magic Mountain train was to run again, but the 2-foot gauge High Country Railroad was built instead. -Ed.)

(DSP&P 191 Returns to Colorado!)

How 191 will look decades after her return

THUNDER LAKE LUMBER CO. (Rhinelander, Wisc.) No. 7 Ex DSP&P No. 51 narrow gauge 2-8-0 has been obtained by the Colorado Railroad Museum and is now on display at Golden, Colo. The Museum negotiated a trade whereby obtained an Ex Thunder Lake Lumber Co. engine built in 1925 from the Ferrocarril Mineral de Chihuahua and traded it to the logging museum in Rhinelander for the Ex South Park locomotive. 

(This post tells about the day of her arrival.)

The Railroad Riches of Golden, part 8

See Part 1 here.

See Part 2 here.

See Part 3 here.

See Part 4 here.

See Part 5 here.

See Part 6 here.

See Part 7 here.

The remains of a prodigal come home

    This final story recounts the surprising outcomes of the two C&S cars that Bob Richardson acquired but sold to the ill-fated Magic Mountain resort, boxcar 8308 and refrigerator car 1116.  

1116 at GLRR in 1992

While all that remained of their original forms, due to time spent at the now defunct Magic Mountain park, was their frames and wheel sets with rider cars built on top, the two eventually found use again in this condition.  In the early 1990s, around the time Bob retired and moved to Pennsylvania, Heritage Square, the themed mall successor of Magic Mountain, finally removed the cars from the restaurant where they had served in a stationary position and sold them to the Georgetown Loop Railroad, the tourist line built on the old C&S grade, where longtime operator Lindsey Ashby planned to convert 1116 and 8308 again into active rider cars, named “Grays Peak” (No. 15) and “Torreys Peak” (unnumbered) respectively, and return them to home C&S rails where they were to haul tourists on the reconstructed Georgetown Loop line.  C&S 1116, indeed, experienced this transformation and once again was back in revenue service, while C&S 8308’s restoration was never completed.  However, for boxcar 8308 its story didn’t end there.

Roughly a decade later, in 2004, two events occurred which brought the final complete set of narrow gauge C&S equipment to the Colorado Railroad Museum before Bob’s passing. 

The first event involved two other boxcar remains.  The Great Western Railway, with facilities in Loveland, Colorado, had long ago purchased some dismantled boxcars to use as sheds.  One of these sheds was made up of two narrow gauge C&S boxcars, 8310 and 8301, minus their frames and wheels.  After decades of use, the Great Western was poised to demolish them, but railfan, historian, and engineer Jason Midyette offered to move them himself.  Considering it would cost the railroad nothing, they took him up on the offer.  Midyette kept one, the 8301 which was only a half-car, and moved it for restoration and use as a shed on his personal property, while he donated the full-sized 8310 car body to the Colorado Railroad Museum. The Golden museum now had a C&S narrow gauge boxcar, though with no frame or wheels.  

The second event that completed CRRM’s C&Sng collection occurred the same year when several miles west on Clear Creek, Lindsey Ashby, operator of the Georgetown Loop, parted ways with History Colorado (formerly The Colorado Historical Society), owners of the line, and needed to move all his rolling stock.  Since he owned all the equipment, but no longer had narrow gauge track to run it, he sent much of it to Golden, including C&S boxcar-turned rider car 8308.*  In a full circle, C&S 8308 had started it’s post-revenue life at Alamosa’s Narrow Gauge Museum with Bob Richardson, then moved to Golden’s Magic Mountain Resort where it was converted to a rider car and then a stationary restaurant piece.  Finally, 45 years after Bob let her go, after a stint back in service on the Georgetown Loop, C&S boxcar 8308 came back to the Colorado Railroad Museum. 

C&S 8308’s story continues as its bottom half looks to be a perfect fit for 8310’s upper half.  Volunteers at the Museum removed 8308’s added rider shell and have placed 8310's body on top of it.  When restoration is complete, the Golden museum will at last have a fully Colorado & Southern narrow gauge boxcar.

* C&S 1116, which had been numbered 15 at its first time on the Loop, was renumbered to its original 1116 when it returned there.  Later, it was also re-given the Grey's Peak name. 

Part 9

The history of Highline Railroad Park video

Highline Railroad Park in Breckenridge, Colorado is a park dedicated to the history of the DSP&P/DL&G/C&S line over Boreas Pass.  On display are C&S engine No. 9, C&S boxcar 8323, and replica C&S caboose 1012.  Also on display are are a White Pass & Yukon rotary snowplow and a D&RGW flatcar.  This video below shows some brief history surrounding the park and some of the rolling stock on display.

When I first visited Breckenridge in the early 1990s I only saw a sign commemorating the Boreas Pass route.  I was unaware that there was a rotary snowplow on display near a cemetery.  On a return visit in the early 2000s I saw the Rotary Snowplow Park for the first time.  When I was there it was just the White Pass rotary with two C&S boxcars behind it.  Finally, in my family's 2018 trip we were able to see the full Highline Railroad Park with No. 9, the replica C&S caboose, and all the other added signage and playground details.  

I didn't get any footage of the Highline RR Park's museum building.  Sorry!

The Railroad Riches of Golden, part 3

See Part 1 here.

See Part 2 here.

 The Move to Golden; Two C&S Cars Say Goodbye

The Narrow Gauge Museum at Alamosa was growing, but by its 5th anniversary in 1958, this had turned into growing pains.  On the positive side, the museum had acquired more and more equipment.  Bob and his business partner Carl Helfin now had four engines, a Galloping Goose, several freight cars, and two cabooses.  The problem was that they simply ran out of space.  If the museum was to expand, it needed more land.

Accessibility was another issue for the museum, though not for the motel.  When Bob and Carl first came to Colorado in the early ‘40s, the lack of tourist accommodations forced visitors to often sleep in their cars. Seeing this available market, Alamosa was a good spot to build a motel, a new concept at the time, as tourism was growing after the second World War ended, and the town was along Route 285, a highway undergoing slow, but consistent development.

The needs of the museum, however, were different than the motel.  Tourist passersby were not the bread and butter of an historic collection.  The museum needed a spot closer to a larger population.  

These were all practical concerns, but some personal ones added to the impetus to move.

Issues had arisen between Bob and and his motel business partner Carl A. Helfin and the two decided to part ways.  In February of ‘58, Bob graciously chose not to disclose the details and simply wrote in the last copy of his very popular newsletter the Narrow Gauge News that he had “sold his interest in the Narrow Gauge Motel Inc., [and] in the process acquir[ed] the bulk of the museum items.” 

Bob embarked on an enormous undertaking: to relocate his museum.  This was not a job to do alone, and he found a partner for his new venture in another fellow Ohioan by the name of Cornelius Hauck.  Cornelius had visited the Narrow Gauge Museum in Alamosa some years back and pressed Bob to save another D&RGW engine, no. 318, that happened to be up for auction, to which Bob, who had reached a level of exhaustion in saving so much equipment already, quipped, “Why don’t you save it?”   So, that’s just what Cornelius did, later delivering the locomotive to the Alamosa museum for display.

The two now joined forces to relocate the museum and found an ideal site in the town of Golden, once the gateway to the Rockies for the Colorado & Southern narrow gauge on its way up Clear Creek Canyon.  A spot such as Golden, only a dozen miles west of metropolitan Denver, would allow easy access to the museum for many times more people than possible in Alamosa.  Here the Narrow Gauge Museum was reborn as the Colorado Railroad Museum.

The heritage of the South Park narrow gauge was symbolically honored at the new museum’s founding on November 2, 1958 when Bob and then-president of the Rocky Mountain Railroad Club Bill Gordon used an abandoned construction crew shovel found along the never-completed Ohio Pass Extension, the grade found by Bob and the Gilmer boys back in ‘54, to turn over the initial shovel of dirt to inaugurate the start of construction for the new museum.

Other remnants of the South Park Line owned by the museum would not be so honored when they had to pay the price, quite literally, for the museum’s needs in Golden.  The purchase of 15 acres of property between North and South Table Mountains, the move of all the equipment over 200 miles north from Alamosa, and the construction costs of the new Golden facilities all demanded sums not in Bob’s or Cornelius’ present pocketbooks.  However, a uniquely timed opportunity arose which provided some desperately needed funds.

At the same time that Bob and Cornelius were struggling to move and build their new museum, another venture was rising from the ground in the town of Golden.  When the now-world-famous Disneyland theme park opened in California in 1955, many claimed it would fail, but it bucked all expectations and became an enormous success, which in turn directly spurred numerous copycat theme parks, the very first of which was being built in the late ‘50s right in Golden at the very same time as the Colorado Railroad Museum’s start. This new park, dubbed Magic Mountain, eagerly sought to mimic Disneyland’s old-time narrow gauge train, and naturally looked to Bob and Cornelius for some rolling stock.  

In 1959, in a heartbreaking but financially prudent move to raise money for the fledgling museum’s new building, the museum sold two of its C&S cars, refrigerator 1116 and boxcar 8308, to Magic Mountain along with RGS engine 42 and RGS caboose 0409 for use as a tourist-hauling park train.

The pocket book was tight and unfortunately these pieces of C&S lore filled the needy coffers.  Still, Bob appreciated that the cars were given a chance to do what they were designed to do: haul cargo on steel rails, albeit human cargo this time.  To do this, though, unlike the RGS engine, the cars lost most of their historic appearance and design in the process of being turned into smaltzy open-air theme park pieces. Much of the two cars’ half-century old character was destroyed as everything but their frames and running gear were ripped out and discarded, only to be replaced by seats and rider car shells. 

To add insult to injury, the future prospects of the two C&S cars quickly deteriorated.  Less than a year after the hopeful grand opening of Magic Mountain, the Disneyland-copycat declared bankruptcy and closed its doors. The park’s train was then put out to pasture as a display at the Magic Mountain site.  

While the loss of the two cars left a hole in the museum’s C&S collection, it was filled with the discovery of a car that played a significant role in the railroad’s history.  In 1961, a year after Magic Mountain’s collapse, Bob located and retrieved C&S caboose 1009.  When the final C&S narrow gauge freight pulled into Leadville for the last time on August 25th, 1943, the car that had the sad honor of bringing up the rear of the train was this caboose.  The tiny bobber, as the diminutive 4-wheeled cabooses were sometimes called, was dismantled in Leadville the following month, meaning that all her metal parts and wheel bases were removed, and the cabin sold to a private owner.  Bill Brown, a CRRM research volunteer, said 1009 found her way to Buena Vista (though Bob noted in his autobiography that the caboose “was retrieved from Leadville”), where she remained until found, in 1961.  Once Bob got her to Golden she was fitted with a new base and wheels to represent the tail end of the C&S like she did for so many years.

News turned hopeful again for C&S reefer 1116 and boxcar 8308 when the Woodmoor Corporation purchased the former Magic Mountain site, including the train, in hopes of reviving the spot somehow.  Initially, in 1969, nearly a decade after their last use, Woodmoor moved the train and displayed it at the corporation’s headquarters in Monument, near Colorado Springs.

The news got better, or worse, depending on one’s perspective in 1971, when the Woodmoor Corp. officially reopened the former Magic Mountain site in a new form as a themed shopping area named Heritage Square.  The good news was that the train was moved back to Golden.  The bad news was that the train was not to run but was instead converted, along with the former Magic Mountain Railroad depot, into a stationary dining area with both C&S 1116 and 8308 having their open rider car sides enclosed to serve as parts of the restaurant. 

Part 4

The Railroad Riches of Golden, part 2

See Part 1 here.

FRIDAY, SUMMER 1954 

COLORADO

NORTHWEST OF GUNNISON

With the midsummer sun piercing the windows of the Gutbuster, the trio’s car has left civilization behind and they are now headed northwest of Gunnison.  Bob and the two Gilmer boys have entered coal country, old, disused mine buildings occasionally dotting the barren terrain and mountains rising up on their left, the 12,000 foot South Baldy Mountain towering in the distance. Running a museum since last year has not dampened Bob’s joy of history and he is eager to find the abandoned coke ovens Bill sighted earlier this summer.  They are sure to be somewhere down this road.   

As the Carryall Gutbuster trundles along through the increasingly sparse terrain, a narrow gauge track follows them on their left.  These rails originally belonged to the DSP&P/DL&G/C&S, but operation of this line, known as the Baldwin Branch, was turned over to the Denver & Rio Grande once the C&S closed the Alpine Tunnel in 1910.  Discarding the line through the bore severed the routes to and north of Gunnison from the rest of the C&S.  The Rio Grande absorbed these lines into its own system.  The Baldwin Branch, specifically, remained in operation until three years ago, 1951. 

With the Carryall’s tires grinding more and more over uneven stones, the three keep a lookout for the old ovens Billy hopes to find again.  They run across some ovens north of the ghost town of Baldwin, but Billy is quite sure these aren’t the ones he saw earlier in the summer, so they continue on, attempting unsuccessfully to drive over Kebler Pass.  Unable to make it over Kebler, the group decides to go round about via Crested Butte.  The road now is simply the remains of an old wagon road.  Finally, Bob can go no farther.  Not even the Gutbuster can continue on this road.

However, there is another problem.  Bob cannot find a place to turn around.  Thankfully he spies another road, a steep downward forest road, and decides to take it.  On and on the three travel, but no place works for a turn around.  The Carryall continues to bounce and vibrate when finally Bob notices a small flat spot that comes off the road.  He throws the Carryall into reverse and backs up onto the spot.  He looks to his right to check his surroundings. Oddly enough, outside the passenger window, a stack of cut wood that looks suspiciously like rotting railroad ties greets his eyes. 

The three climb out of the car to take a look and Bob’s suspicions are confirmed.  The flat spot they are on is part of an old roadbed and the wood stack is definitely made up of unused railroad ties.  What were these for?  No railroad, to his knowledge, ever cut through here.

The wheels are spinning in Bob’s head, but to no avail.  What the trio has stumbled upon, though Bob will not figure this out for some time, is the hoped-for Road to El Dorado of the Denver, South Park & Pacific.  Some had heard of a stretch of unfinished grading up Ohio Pass intended to reach Utah, completed in the late 1800s and abandoned before a single tie or rail was set in place, but no one in the burgeoning railfan era had ever found it. 

Bob is desperate to explore what appears to be completed, but now bush-infested railroad grade heading both in front of his truck and behind. To the rear it appears that this old roadbed was constructed on two sides of a gully where a bridge was meant to be built.  Over a half century since a construction crew mysteriously packed up and went home, Creation has busily reclaimed this wilderness disturbance, and Bob cannot see much beyond the small spot and the stack of disintegrating, unused ties.  Curiosity is abuzz, but time is not in his favor.  The Gilmer boys must be in Denver by the end of the weekend and they have many miles to go just to reach a good road, dinner, and an inn for the night.  

After a few more quick looks, Bob reluctantly slides into the driver seat after the boys are in place, and rolls carefully back onto and over the rutted trail they had come on.  With their eyes now in high alert for more rail grade, the group spots bits and pieces along the road, a cut here, some fill there.  At the top of Ohio Pass they catch sight of filled-in grade striking out into what has become a beaver pond.  Despite his disappointment to not have the chance to investigate further, Bob knows he will come back sometime to find out more.  

Bill Gilmer is a bit disappointed never to have found the coke ovens he spotted earlier in the summer, but Bob is exultant to have stumbled upon a piece of construction so mysterious.  For someone who knew so much about the narrow gauge in the area, he had no knowledge of a railroad at this spot.  While the car leaves 10,065 foot Ohio Pass behind, heading north towards Redstone on the twisting road, and the long day doubtlessly leads the two drowsy passengers to quiet observation of the passing sights, Bob’s mind may have circled afresh with thoughts of the fabled South Park Line that had built towards this area.  Was that old grade related to the dreams of the old Denver, South Park & Pacific?

With his eyes on the road ahead, and happy to let his likely now-sleeping young passengers dream away the last few miles of their day’s journey, Bob must turn his mind to more pressing matters: they won’t make their planned dinner time at the Redstone Inn.

*******

Bob and his two companions had indeed stumbled upon the mysterious lost extension of the DSP&P, though he didn’t know it until roughly a year later after a return visit and more research through old railroad documents. The railroad had done significant grading work up Ohio Pass, including a massive rock supporting wall, pushing the line west towards its Pacific namesake, but to a reason lost to history, inexplicably, one day all the work stopped before any rails were ever laid.  Memories of Bob’s adventure in this area north of Gunnison would return to the forefront many years later when he orchestrated his most ambitious C&S/DSP&P acquisition. 

Bob Richardson and the C&Sng

The iconic Denver, South Park & Pacific narrow gauge, later a branch of the Colorado & Southern Railway, was gone too soon to save much, the last major section of which, the line over Boreas Pass, was pulled up in 1938, ten years before Bob and Carl Helfin made their move to the Rocky Mountains.  The final short leg between Leadville and Climax survived until it was standard gauged in 1943, ten years before the Narrow Gauge Museum got its start.  By then scrapping operations had consumed what was not already sold off.  As the Alamosa motel and museum collection grew, it naturally was dominated by relics of other railroads such as the Rio Grande Southern and D&RGW as both narrow gauge routes were, unlike the C&S, still alive in the motel’s early years, though these lines were in their death throes.  

Yet, in a curious twist of fate, a large swath of Colorado & Southern rolling stock had managed to sneak past the scrap yard.  An attorney from Denver by the name of Victor Miller, who rescued the Rio Grande Southern railroad from bankruptcy in 1929, sought to do the same for the South Park Line in 1931 when the C&S sought to get it off their hands. Frustrated in his failed, years-long dealings with the C&S, he filed a lawsuit.  The lengthy saga ended in 1938 with Miller receiving 125 C&S freight cars that he could repaint and use on the RGS to settle the case. Most of these cars would later be sent to Alaska for use on the White Pass & Yukon route, deemed crucial to the WWII war effort, but several cars remained in Colorado.

In June of 1954, just one month prior to his jaunt above Gunnison with the Gilmer boys, Bob was able to rescue a few of these C&S-turned-RGS stragglers.  To boot, he acquired three different types of cars, perfect to reflect the many roles played by a railroad.  These were three of the four freight cars he bought from the RGS dismantler and stuffed with railroad records and hardware.  This, along with what Bob later learned was the discovery of the unfinished South Park Ohio Pass grade, made the summer of ‘54 a very good summer for DSP&P/C&S history.  

The June 1954 rolling stock acquisition included, first of all, C&S 1116, built in 1909.  While turned into an outfit car for work crews by the RGS, it was originally a refrigerator car with roof openings where ice was once inserted to keep the car’s cargo fresh.  The next car was 1910-built C&S 50,000 pound boxcar 8308, also reshaped into a RGS outfit car.  And finally, Bob now had C&S 7064 built in the first year of the twentieth century, a 50,000 pound livestock car, with open gaps for airflow, left with other stock cars on Dallas Divide after abandonment. 

These were the Narrow Gauge Museum’s first C&Sng rolling stock acquisitions.  Still, everyone knows the ideal symbol of a line is a locomotive.  In time Bob and Carl’s Alamosa museum had a RGS loco (no. 42) and a D&RGW one (no. 346), but there simply seemed no chance of getting a DSP&P/C&S engine.  The only three left in Colorado were already claimed by various towns for park displays (No. 60 in Idaho Springs, No. 71 in Central City, and No. 74 in RGS garb in Boulder).  The closest Bob could ever likely come would be the now-standard gauged steam-powered C&S rotary snowplow, essentially a locomotive that drives the blades instead of wheels, up at Leadville, but at the time the C&S was still using it.  Upon these thoughts, Bob would have had to resign himself to the fact that there was nothing to be done.  He would have to memorialize the South Park via the three freight cars and no engine.  

Part 3 

Como scores a 2-page article in Trains Mag!

The Colorado & Southern narrow gauge has not made numerous appearances in the annals of Trains

Magazine, the flagship railfan publication.  It has indeed happened here and there, but briefly or in small insets.  The last time I recall coverage was in 2017 when a number of small references came up related to Como and Klondike Kate, and the news that No. 40 was returning to the Georgetown Loop.  

However, in the February 2021 edition of Trains Como got a full two-page article in the "Preservation" section on the magazine.  

Most of the info is old territory to those who are familiar with the history and doings at Como.  There were a couple items, though, that were new to me. 

First, I was not aware that the roundhouse "smoke jacks were [originally] closer to the front elevation (instead of near the back wall and windows where they are currently).  This implies that locomotives were originally reversed in, instead of positioned head first, as practiced later.  The reason for the change and its resulting modification to the building is unclear."  Curiously, it appears Klondike Kate has been reversed in for the most part.

I was also not aware that "A much more in-depth project, a two axle bobber caboose frame, rests nearby atop several sawhorses.  Due to the frame's fragile condition, an exact reproduction has been built from heavy timbers."  If anyone has more info on this project, please let me know.

Finally, as a testimony to the hard work of all those at Como, it was encouraging to read the author Z.P. Liollio describe 1878 DSP&P boxcar 608 as "pristine."  For those who have seen photos of this car when it was moved from its location as a cabin, this positive designation is an honor to tremendous restoration work!

C&S Coach 70 takes a trip to Silver Plume!

Photo Corinne Westeman 

 C&S coach 70 made her last trip west from Golden to Idaho Springs in 1941 coupled to engine 60.  The two were pulled by Rube Morris, the scrapper, using engine 69 for power.  By this time the Idaho Springs to Silver Plume stretch of the Clear Creek line had been torn up roughly three years earlier.  Coach 70 and her locomotive were put on display in town and the remaining tracks were subsequently torn up all the way to Golden.  Despite a few moves within Idaho Springs coach 70 and engine 60 have been outside on exhibition for nearly 80 years.  

But just a little over a week ago, coach 70 finally reached the end of the Clear Creek line, arriving in

Photo Corinne Westeman

Silver Plume on December 8th, 2020.  This time, unlike her life in revenue passenger service, she didn't travel over the Georgetown Loop; she was pulled by tractor trailer up the mountainside on I-70.  

Her hometown, Idaho Springs, paid $15,000 to move her to Historic Rail Adventure's workshop adjacent to the Georgetown Loop railroad facilities in Silver Plume where the coach will be inspected this winter to see what it would take to restore the car.  Once Historic Rail Adventure has an estimate, Idaho Springs will then determine the next steps.

On a curious note, while C&S engine 60 is sitting solo for the first time in almost 80 years, coach 70 is reunited in Silver Plume with the only other fully intact C&S coach known to still be in existence, C&S 76.  

According to Bob Bowland, former Idaho Springs mayor, the end goal of the restoration, if it occurs, is to bring the coach back to No. 60 in Idaho Springs and build a shelter over the display train to protect it far into the future.  

More details can be found here from an article in the Canyon Courier.  Note: The article claims the engine and coach were "gifted to the county by the railway."  In actuality, the county pressured the C&S into giving them the train.  The C&S owed the county a good deal of back taxes.  The county offered to drop the case to pursue the missing tax money if the railroad would give them a display train.  This was no small ask considering that nearby Central City had to fight the reluctant railroad executives quite a bit to finally get a display train for their town the previous year.

C&S boxcar 8179 comes to Como!

On the morning of September 24th, 2020, a C&S boxcar finally came home!  She arrived in Como.  Here is the writeup written by Jason Midyette: 

"Como received a new boxcar this morning.

"Colorado & Southern 8179 was a "Miller Car" that went to the RGS in 1938 and stayed on to the end of operations. The RGS made the car into an outfit car and used it until the end, when it was scrapped. The carbody ended up in Olathe, where it spent nearly 70 years as a shed. The car was acquired by the South Park Rail Society last year. We moved it from Olathe yesterday and unloaded it in Como this morning."

Jason Midyette photo

To see more photos, check out this thread on the Narrow Gauge Discussion Forum.

50th Anniversary of the last South Park trains with Bob Richardson

I just purchased Bob Richardson's autobiography, Chasing Trains.  Richardson, who co-founded the Colorado Railroad Museum, has a number of C&S tidbits that I didn't know about.  Below is one of them.

The modelers at Boulder, Colorado, who maintained Engine 74 in the city park there, loaned us the so-called "bear-trap" cinder catcher they had built from Colorado & Southern patterns for that 2-8-0.  

Photo Source: Heritage Rail Alliance

So, in April of 1987, on the occasion of the final-runs anniversary on the South Park line, we operated No. 346 with our single ex-C&S stock car and the little four-wheel C&S way-car (caboose).  

Author's photo: 1991

It made an unusual and authentic 50th anniversary train, for in 1937, Engine 346 had been on loan to the C&S, and she handled the last livestock train on the South Park--into Jefferson.  The engine has a steel cab instead of the original wooden one, a result of a wreck on the C&S at Kenosha Pass in 1936.  

After the last stock train in 1937, there was a mix-up, and the crew put No. 346 into the Como roundhouse and dumped the fire.  Then, the crew got an automobile ride back to Denver.  The men were supposed to have run the 2-8-0 back to Denver, so the engine could be loaded onto a flatcar and sent back to the D&RGW.  As a result, a crew had to be taken back to Como, where No. 346 was fired up, and the men ran the engine light to Denver.

Drone over the Como yard - 2019

The South Park Rail Society recently posted this video by Michael Randol SOCO Elevated Drone Photography Ltd including outstanding drone footage of the Como roundhouse yard.  A light snow blankets the South Park and many new acquisitions of narrow gauge equipment rest outside for their turn to come back to life including two recently acquired Rio Grande stock cars and a drop down gondola.

Happy Thanksgiving! A short 2019 C&S thankfulness list

In honor of Thanksgiving, I put together a small list of C&S-related items that I'm thankful for from 2019.  There are certainly more, but this is what I came up with in the few minutes before I head up to the kitchen to prep for our Thanksgiving guests today.

1. The discovery and acquisition of the only two C&S type 2 boxcars known to exist (found on a farm in western Colorado)



2. The arrival of two C&S Bettendorf freight car trucks from South Dakota that previously had been used on Type 2 stockcars



3. Every stall in the Como roundhouse (minus the office) now has track in it once again.



4. Arrival of the first diesel, a Plymouth, in Como



5. The first new DSP&P timetable in...a few years :)



6. Jason Midyette's restoration and donation of C&S boxcar 8027 to Como



7. The arrival of the first coach, RGS 256, to Como



8. A grant was received for the restoration of C&S gondola 4319 (in Como, on loan from Central City)


9. The C&S railway society's continued work on caboose 1006 in Silver Plume.



10. Two gondolas (Rio Grande) are now on display on the C&S right-of-way in Pine, Colorado (sorry, I don't have a photo of the second one)



11. Discovery of the exact sink needed for restoration of C&S caboose 1008, down to the cast lettering, at the Colorado Railroad Museum


Thank You, dear Father, for the C&S and the joy it brings to so many of us.  And thank You for all the hard work done by so many this past year!

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!
Kurt

C&S cars on the WP&Y

As the C&S narrow gauge wound down and World War II wound up, the US Army shipped a large volume of former C&S rolling stock up to Alaska to work on the White Pass & Yukon Railway. 

Recently I located a site run by Boerries Burkhardt.  He has attempted the amazing job of making an inventory of every WP&Y piece of equipment, including:

A ton of photos of ex-C&S boxcars

Photos of ex-C&S flat cars

Photos of ex-C&S refrigerator cars

One photo of ex-C&S locomotive No.69

Two more C&S boxcars found!

The C&S saved a few pieces of narrow gauge rolling stock like engines 71, 60, and 9, as well as coach 70, caboose 1006, gondola 4319, combine 20, and the three passenger cars now in Silver Plume.

Jason Midyette Photo of C&S 8027 in 2005

Sales to other railroads inadvertently led to the saving of others like engines 74 and 32 (DSP&P 191), the refrigerator and stock car at the Colorado Railroad Museum, and the two reconstructed boxcars at Breckenridge and Boreas Pass. 

Curiously, the other source of rolling stock salvation has been a bit surprising-use as sheds.

Old railroad cars have sometimes been purchased by local individuals to be used as sheds.  Two C&S baggage cars, #2 and #3 both retired in January 1939, found a prolonged life this way.  Both ended up on the ground near Longmont, Colorado.  #2, specifically, was dismantled in July 1939 and the body sold to F.W. Kimmel of Lyon, Colorado.

Baggage car #3, however, though sighted for decades as a shed, was destroyed by a developer in 2005, despite assurances that it would be saved.  According to Jason Midyette, "another C&S car on the property, possibly thought to be Baggage/Mail car 11, was destroyed at the same time."

Her identical sister, #2, however, found a new home.  In 1980 the 1874 baggage car was moved to the Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer in Grand Island, Nebraska.  The baggage car is reportedly not in good shape, having rotted quite a bit from her years as a shed, but is preserved nonetheless.

C&S 1008

A few other cars survived for a period of time as sheds or tool cars.  Combination car #30 was converted to a tool car and then used as a shed in Leadville.  Mallory Hope Ferrell's C&Sng lists it still there as late as 1959.  Mail-coach #42 was dismantled in May of 1939, and then the body was sold, and placed on the ground at the end of the Silica branch.  I could find no details of the whereabouts of either car at the present time.

Caboose 1008 is an example of another car that survived as a shed.  It was discovered in California, decades after it was assumed scrapped.  It is now undergoing restoration.

Another recent car saved from toolshed life was C&S boxcar 8027. According to the GoFundMe

Jason Midyette Photo of C&S 8027 in 2005

page that helped bring this car home to Como, 8027 was "'Dismantled' in Denver in January of 1939. Stripped of its metal parts, the carbody was sold to a farmer east of Boulder where it was used as a calving shed and general storage until early 2005. Acquired by a private owner in 2005, the car was slowly restored over the next several years."  That owner, Jason Midyette, did a stunning job restoring it in Kansas, and it now resides in Como.

Well finally, the good news!  Two more piece of C&S rolling stock have been found!!!

The South Park Rail Society recently announced, "We have successfully acquired the only two C&S type 2 boxcars currently known to exist.  These two cars are located on a farm in Western Colorado. The South Park Rail Society needs your assistance to raise the required funds to load and ship these boxcars to Como Colorado for restoration  and display. Additionally some of the funds will be used to  purchase and ship two original sets of historically correct "Bettendorf" Cast steel narrow gauge trucks to go under these boxcars. The final phase of the project will see all of these boxcars restored to operational condition."

This is quite honestly an amazing discovery!  Please follow this link to learn more and to contribute a gift to help this excellent work come to fruition.

Photos below are from the Fund Raising site.