Wednesday, February 14, 2018

Film of C&S 9 in 1936

The following video is from a stock footage site.  It is a film from 1936 showing C&S No. 9 pulling away from a station followed by a baggage car and a coach with a quite crowded rear platform.  The title of the video mentions this as Denver, but the background certainly doesn’t appear to be Denver Union station.  Does anyone else have any ideas?  Also, why are there so many people on the rear platform?  Might this actually be the last passenger run to Leadville in 1937 instead of 1936?

Monday, February 12, 2018

Riding the Argentine Central in 2015

The Argentine Central, abandoned in 1918, ran from Silver Plume to the summit of Mount McClellan, 13,587 feet.  While certainly a mining road, it also was a tourist attraction and passengers on the C&S often enjoyed this high altitude thrill shortly after traversing the world-renowned Georgetown Loop.  In this video, a 4x4 Jeep drives the old Argentine Central grade to the summit.

Wednesday, February 7, 2018

Another Now and Then Fade at Platte Canyon

I found this video fading from Maddow, Shawnee in 1929, with a string of C&S boxcars in the center, to 2011, panning over to Platte Canyon High School on Youtube.



The same creator did another now and then video in Platte Canyon here.

Saturday, February 3, 2018

The narrow gauge is back in Pine after 80 years!

Shelly Means photo, December 30, 2017
"For the first time in 80 years, the narrow gauge railroad is returning to Pine Grove."  So runs a January 5th, 2018 Park County news article.  Pine was, in the time of the South Park and later C&S, the location of a coaling dock.  The memory of the importance of coal and the railroad has now been commemorated in a new display.

On December 30th, 2017, an old Rio Grande gondola was installed on a rebuilt segment of track in Pine Grove History Park.  Jim Jordan of the Rocky Mountain Railroad Heritage Society worked with Lindsey Ashby, who donated the car, to help make the new display happen.  The DSP&P Historical Society was responsible for laying the tracks.

While we wish a C&S car could have been used, it's delightful to know that the display was built on the original South Park right-of-way.  The D&RGW car (no. 1499) was purchased in the '70's by Ashby, seeing use first on the old Colorado Central Narrow Gauge tourist route in Central City and then on the Georgetown Loop.  It later traveled with Ashby to the Royal Gorge route. 

The town also has a standard gauge caboose, CB&Q 14359, on display.  I don't have any knowledge of how or why it got there, or whether it is a private or public display.

Steve Schweighofer graciously provided the news article included in this post.


Joan McDonald photo, December 30, 2017


References:
"Platte Canyon: Pine Grove received railroad gondola car." The Flume. 5 January 2018.
Midyette, Jason.  "A gondola for Pine."  The Bogies and the Loop. January 2018.