C&S Narrow Gauge Mileage is growing!

In the first half of the twentieth century, the years went up, but the mileage of the C&S kept going down.  Minus the Climax to Leadville line, the last narrow gauge C&S-owned rail to be pulled would be from Chatfield to Denver completed by December 1942, leaving the route standard gauged and finally the narrow gauge rails at Union Terminal and the yards at Denver, finished by the 15th of April in 1943.

The big finale, of course, was when the narrow gauge rails were uprooted from the now standard gauged Climax to Leadville route after the final narrow gauge run on August 25th, 1943.  Technically speaking, C&S rails still held on from Gunnison to the Baldwin Mines, albeit under the "new" ownership of the D&RGW, but were eventually gone by the 1950s. 

It struck me, however, that there is more C&S narrow gauge trackage today than over fifty years ago.  The mileage of this lost railroad has actually increased since the mid twentieth century as tourist routes have sprung up and historical displays and re-creations have dotted the Colorado landscape.

I don't have exact amounts in terms of mileage, but I thought it would be curious to recount the number of places that now (or still) sport C&S narrow gauge track.

Original track still in place

Length of Alpine Tunnel

Reconstructed track on original roadbed

Silver Plume to Devil's Gate Viaduct

Wye on Kenosha Pass

Rocky Point on Boreas Pass

Snowplow park, Breckenridge

Como

Alpine Tunnel

Sherrod Curve

Display Parks

Tracks are on or in the vicinity of former C&S roadbed

Boreas Pass

Silver Plume (The caboose is now indoors under restoration, so I'm not sure the status of the track at present)

Central City

Idaho Springs

Reconstructed track that was later removed

Central City towards Black Hawk-twice rebuilt and removed

First time

Second time

Georgetown depot 

(I don't recall what is still here.  At one point Central American Railways #44 was displayed on track outside the old Georgetown depot.  I know #44 is gone, but I am not sure if track remains)

And the great news is: the mileage keeps growing!  Especially in Como this year!

Reference:

Poor, Mac. DSP&P pp. 412-3

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No. 40 is coming back to the Loop!

I'm sure many of you are more up on this than I am, but I just found out via Trains Magazine that 1921 Consolidation No. 40 that ran for a long time on the Georgetown Loop during the Lindsay Ashby era has been returned to the Loop for restoration to service for the 2018 season.

No. 40 was purchased from the International Railways of Central America in 1968 to run on the Central City Narrow Gauge Railway, though it didn't arrive until 1972 due to political unrest.  It was eventually moved over to Silver Plume as the Loop was rebuilt.  It ran there until 2004 when the Colorado Historical Society (History Colorado) and the Ashbys had a impasse.  The locomotive was moved over to Golden to the Colorado Railroad Museum where it also operated at times.

The last time I had the chance to ride over the Loop was in 2003 and No. 40 was on the point.  The photos here are from that trip.

 It will be delightful to see her back on the Loop!