Relic from Alpine Tunnel?

In the summer of 1990 at the age of 14 my family took a trip to Colorado and visited the Alpine Tunnel for the first time.  While hiking back from the West Portal, somewhere around the first bend after leaving the engine house complex, my dad found this nut and bolt off the side of the right-of-way.  I took it home and for years displayed it near my model train set as a "rail joiner".  (my mention in the picture of it being found "east of alpine" is a bit off too.  I suppose it would be south of the west portal complex).

I'm very curious if anyone out there who knows more about narrow gauge track hardware could identify this object as being either related to the railroad or just some piece of junk that fell off some guy's 4-wheel drive.

C&S 74 dedication at Boulder 1953

A while ago I published an article chronicling the lives of the 5 remaining C&S locos in The Bogies & the Loop magazine.  One of those locomotives was C&S 74 (ex-C&NW 30, ex-RGS 74).  Recently, I found an article that looked back on the story of how 74 originally made its way to the park in Boulder in 1952.  It also details a bit about the dedication ceremony.  Find the article here at www.dailycamera.com.  The photo below is from that article and shows the 74 during its 1953 dedication.

It was interesting to learn from the article that not only was the caboose displayed with the engine destroyed by dynamite (only a few years after it arrived), but the replacement caboose was damaged by arson!

Below is the portion of my previous article that covers #74's post C&S and RGS life.

74: Being left behind may be a part of the plan 

     We are all prone to asking, “What might have happened if…” Regret and longing make us wonder if we had not been left behind by some person, job, or opportunity, would we have found what we really wanted? Then again, maybe being left behind was part of the plan, a far greater plan than our own. 74 may have wondered this as it sat lonely at Morse Bros. Machinery in 1948.
     World War II either saved or destroyed many an engine. Many of the unemployed locos were scrapped for the war effort. Others were used where needed. C&S 74 had the privilege of working with two sister engines on the last remaining narrow gauge portion of the railroad between Leadville and Climax. Molybdenum was a hot commodity in the war effort and Climax had a lot. So much, in fact, that they needed to standard gauge the line, which they did in 1943. Numbers 74, 75, and 76 were then placed on flatcars and shipped to Denver. They were sold to Morse Bros. Machinery and sat on their property for three years. That’s when a Peruvian railroad came looking for some narrow gauge motive power. They took 75 and 76. 74 was left behind to wallow away alone. Left behind.
     Two years later, though, another life awaited 74. In 1948, the Rio Grande Southern was wheezing out its last breaths. The Galloping Geese had bought it a few more years, but the light was fading. The Rocky Mountain Railroad Club knew their chance to see and ride the line was dwindling. They wanted to plan as many excursions as possible. When the club approached the RGS receiver about this, he remarked that it was too costly to lease a D&RGW engine to haul their trains. The Club countered by suggesting that they buy a locomotive. For whatever reason, they took the bait and purchased 74.
     One member of that railroad club was a man named Dr. John B. Schoolland. He was very interested in the Colorado & Northwestern Railroad which ran through his resident town of Boulder and discovered that 74 had started its career on that very railroad. Recognizing that the RGS was near its terminus, he set out to save the engine so it could be displayed in Boulder. The city’s community started various fundraisers that eventually ‘bought’ 74 and had her shipped via rail. 74 returned home in August of 1952 and was placed in Central Park along with a D&RGW coach and RGS caboose.

  The years were not kind as neglect and vandalism set in. Various community members and students worked to touch up the engine off and on. Unfortunately, the RGS caboose was destroyed via a student prank using dynamite and was replaced with a Rio Grande caboose. In 1979 the Boulder Model Railroad Club committed to taking care of the site. 74 and her train were eventually moved a bit to a new curved track and have been maintained beautifully since. It wears its original no. 30 from its C&NW days. The most recent chapter in this engine’s life is that the CHS shipped it to a company to see if it could be restored for use on the Georgetown Loop Railroad. This was decided against, but 74 was cosmetically restored and returned to Boulder. Who could have guessed that being left behind in 1948 would have saved her for our enjoyment today?

Narrow Gauge in the family 3

This post should technically be before part 2.  Here Anna Lee Ames Frohlich explains the early planning for the narrow gauge up Clear Creek.  The part I most enjoyed about this article is that she quotes several times from her distant relative's diaries.  He was a stock holder in the Colorado Central and his diaries reference actual events including board meetings and visits to potential construction sites.

An example from October 8th, 1870 is: “Snowy this morning. Stopped at Denver last night and took cars for Golden City in the morning. Fine country part of way up to Golden City Road seems to have been well built. Looked up the ravine which he (?) wishes to have us build a narrow gauge road up some 6 miles.”

C&S 1006 got dumped?

When the C&S donated locomotives to towns like Central City and Idaho Springs, they spiffed them up with nice coats of paint, laid nice display track, and gave them friends (i.e. coaches and, in the case of #71, a gondola).  What is the story, then, with C&S caboose 1006 in Silver Plume?

When I last saw it, it rested on a nice piece of track, and had a nice paint job, but by the above photo from what I guess to be the 1950s it looks like it was "dumped."  No track, just dirt.  No nice paint job, just faded sides.  I hope to find out the story.

Narrow Gauge in the family 2

After reading Anna Lee Ames Frohlich's column about her family connection with the C&S, I found some other articles of hers. This one finds her explaining the initial building of the Colorado Central.  She also explores the impact of the silver panic and the drive to coke and ship bituminous coal.  She references the brother of her great-great-great grandfather who became vice-president of the Colorado Central.
 

Narrow Gauge in the family

I happened on a real treat while searching for some old photos of C&S 60 in the interim from 1941 to the present.  The link below will take you to an article written by a woman who discovered that her ancestors included three men who were connected to the narrow gauge.  One of them was on the C&S board of directors in 1898 and another was even the president of the Union Pacific!

She shares how when she was young she would climb all over #60 and then shows her granddaughter doing the same.  Very cool heritage!

http://coloradogambler.com/western-footprints-backing-down-clear-creek-canyon/

Video of C&S 9 in 1948 or 1949

C&S 9 has had three reincarnations since it's last days on the Clear Creek lines in the early 1940s.  Its second return to life was for the Chicago Railroad Fair in 1948 and 1949.  The tiny mogul was doused in red paint and rechristened "Chief Crazy Horse" to pull visitors around the fair in the theme of an old-time western train.

I was truly surprised to have found actual video footage of number 9 at work at the fair.  Here is a home video that the Youtube poster's father made of the fair.  At about :41 you will see a short clip of the engine pulling past the camera.  You don't get a good view of the engine, but it's her all right.  She is followed by a surprisingly long train of coaches and excursion cars.  The train doesn't show up anymore after that, though the narrator does mention the train as a "narrow gauge train from Colorado" later in the video.

I presume the combine and observation car are the C&S RPO car and observation car that still reside in Silver Plume.