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.