A mini DSP&P?-who is this?

While searching for DSP&P stuff, I have come upon the below videos a couple of times.  There is no description other than naming it Denver, South Park & Pacific.  Does anyone know more about these folks?  There are some more videos of this group here.

Mysteries of Alpine-part 6: Were the tracks in the Alpine Tunnel ever abandoned?

The line from Hancock to Quartz through the Alpine Tunnel was abandoned in 1910...or was it?  The answer is “not exactly.”  In practice, of course, the trains stopped running, but when it came to official recognition of trackage, it gets a little murkier.

The rails themselves moldered away for thirteen years before the C&S finally pulled them, so those inactive tracks were still on the books for over a decade after the last steel wheels pulled by a locomotive rolled over them.  In fact, the words, “Abandon line between Hancock and Quartz” shows up in a C&S report dated September 17, 1923!  In this same report the cost of all the items retired is listed.  Included in this list is the mileage, specified as “M.P. 160.55 to 162.71 and M.P. 163.42 to 173.81.”  Why the gap between 162.71 and 163.42?  That 0.71 segment of a mile is presumably the track inside the tunnel and out of the west portal that for various reasons was unredeemable by the scrapper (An exploration of those reasons can be found here and here).

Lew Schneider-1958

So, this short segment technically remained on the C&S’ official mileage amount.  The following month, October 1923, a document entitled “C&S Report of Changes in Official Mileage for Oct. 1923” lists, “Hancock to Quartz...Length 12.86 miles.  12.44 miles taken up.  Length [remaining] .42 miles.”  Despite the .42 versus .71 discrepancy, the point is that this stretch of track was still considered a part of the railroad.  In fact, Daniel W. Edwards remarks, “One might argue then that the tracks through the Tunnel were never officially abandoned and remained part of the C&S’ official mileage!”

John Sanderson

Source: Daniel W. Edwards.  A Documentary History of the South Park Line: Vol. 5: The Gunnison District, Part II.

Leadville to Climax on a speeder

Great photos abound of various segments of old C&S rights-of-way.  Ironically, the stretch between Leadville and Climax is not one of them due namely, of course, to the fact that it was never abandoned and still hosts an active railroad, the Leadville, Colorado & Southern.  While I've ridden the LC&S, the video below shows a unique view on the former narrow gauge high line.  The video was taken via a speeder and track level.  It truly gives a sense of the terrain and engineering of this beautiful route.  I particularly enjoy the segments where the track is on a dramatic shelf with mountain rising on one side and sheer drops threaten on the other. 

Enjoy!

A Battle for the Loop: Balloons vs. Wind

As my first return to Colorado in many years rises on the horizon of my summer vacation, I have been excited to try out new technology to capture traces of the C&S narrow gauge. The one particular gadget I am eager to experiment with is a drone. The opportunity to catch aerial footage of the treacherous grades of the C&S, accessing an angle and breadth not available to the average eye, is exciting to say the least. This, I have just discovered, is a desire that precedes me by over a century, however!

The drone of the beginning of the 20th century was known as the hot air balloon. While the first manned, untethered hot air balloon flight occurred in France in 1783, when the C&S proposed getting an aerial photo of the Georgetown Loop via balloon it was considered by the Denver Times of October 22nd, 1901 as “one of the most novel methods ever adopted by any railroad in the country.”

Atmospheric concerns in the canyon, however, caused a myriad of problems for photographer H.H. Buckwalter and the balloonist Ivy Baldwin. To begin with the attempt was to be made in the windy fall month of October. Next, in order to secure a still photograph, it was proposed that the balloon would need to be steadied by a cable held by a person on the ground. Wind was still the biggest problem. As the Denver Times commented, “No matter how still the lower air currents in the narrow canon may seem, there are swift eddies up above that may dash the monster balloon on the rocks. The old safeguard to this is a steady man at the reel below. The instant the balloon makes a downward swoop he will grab an ax and cut the rope.”

The day for the ascent finally came in late October 28th, 1901. The Denver Post claimed that “seven

hundred people watched the battle between Buckwalter and the wind.” He attempted to rise from “a recess in the mountains above Georgetown....just around the short curve and cut that opens out beneath the bridge on the loop.” A train from Denver was run for visitors to watch.

In Buckwalter’s first attempt, the balloon went nowhere. Apparently, he hadn’t calculated his own 210 pounds of weight! The balloon was filled up more. He and Baldwin tried again and got up 13 feet, but alas Buckwalter’s weight still brought the contraption back down. After a failed attempt to get a lighter weight volunteer to replace him, the weather in the canyon made a quick, windy change, “whirl[ing the balloon] around like a top.”

In frustration, the pair decided to go up anyway. They made it 50 feet in the air when, “the wind swept down through the mountains with a rush, caught the balloon square in the center and jerked it back with a crack.” They were then hauled down.

In a last ditch effort Buckwalter decided to set the camera and let Baldwin go up without him with the job to simply press the shutter. A train was placed on the center of the loop bridge. As a test, the balloon was let up without occupants, but the weather again turned and at 60 feet up, a sharp gust whipped against the canvas, ripping a four-foot hole in it.

Admitting defeat, Buckwalter and Baldwin confessed that this was simply a bad time of year and would have to attempt it again in the summer. I'm not aware if he ever attempted this feat again.  But in the words of the Denver Post “the wind finally demonstrated that it was more powerful than man.”


The view that Buckwalter could not seem to acquire, is now easily accessible via drone, as the below video demonstrates:

Sources:
Daniel W. Edwards. A Documentary History of the South Park Line: Vol. 8, The Clear Creek District in the Twentieth Century, 2017.

"Hot Air Balloon." Wikipedia.org.

Is this the end-of-track at Climax?

Is this the end of track at Climax?
This is a screen shot from Google Earth.  I followed the track from Leadville as far as I could until it appeared the track stopped.  This seems to be the spot.  Does anyone else know if I got it right?  I apologize.  I should have made note of the coordinates.