The Railroad Riches of Golden, part 8

See Part 1 here.

See Part 2 here.

See Part 3 here.

See Part 4 here.

See Part 5 here.

See Part 6 here.

See Part 7 here.

The remains of a prodigal come home

    This final story recounts the surprising outcomes of the two C&S cars that Bob Richardson acquired but sold to the ill-fated Magic Mountain resort, boxcar 8308 and refrigerator car 1116.  

1116 at GLRR in 1992

While all that remained of their original forms, due to time spent at the now defunct Magic Mountain park, was their frames and wheel sets with rider cars built on top, the two eventually found use again in this condition.  In the early 1990s, around the time Bob retired and moved to Pennsylvania, Heritage Square, the themed mall successor of Magic Mountain, finally removed the cars from the restaurant where they had served in a stationary position and sold them to the Georgetown Loop Railroad, the tourist line built on the old C&S grade, where longtime operator Lindsey Ashby planned to convert 1116 and 8308 again into active rider cars, named “Grays Peak” (No. 15) and “Torreys Peak” (unnumbered) respectively, and return them to home C&S rails where they were to haul tourists on the reconstructed Georgetown Loop line.  C&S 1116, indeed, experienced this transformation and once again was back in revenue service, while C&S 8308’s restoration was never completed.  However, for boxcar 8308 its story didn’t end there.

Roughly a decade later, in 2004, two events occurred which brought the final complete set of narrow gauge C&S equipment to the Colorado Railroad Museum before Bob’s passing. 

The first event involved two other boxcar remains.  The Great Western Railway, with facilities in Loveland, Colorado, had long ago purchased some dismantled boxcars to use as sheds.  One of these sheds was made up of two narrow gauge C&S boxcars, 8310 and 8301, minus their frames and wheels.  After decades of use, the Great Western was poised to demolish them, but railfan, historian, and engineer Jason Midyette offered to move them himself.  Considering it would cost the railroad nothing, they took him up on the offer.  Midyette kept one, the 8301 which was only a half-car, and moved it for restoration and use as a shed on his personal property, while he donated the full-sized 8310 car body to the Colorado Railroad Museum. The Golden museum now had a C&S narrow gauge boxcar, though with no frame or wheels.  

The second event that completed CRRM’s C&Sng collection occurred the same year when several miles west on Clear Creek, Lindsey Ashby, operator of the Georgetown Loop, parted ways with History Colorado (formerly The Colorado Historical Society), owners of the line, and needed to move all his rolling stock.  Since he owned all the equipment, but no longer had narrow gauge track to run it, he sent much of it to Golden, including C&S boxcar-turned rider car 8308.*  In a full circle, C&S 8308 had started it’s post-revenue life at Alamosa’s Narrow Gauge Museum with Bob Richardson, then moved to Golden’s Magic Mountain Resort where it was converted to a rider car and then a stationary restaurant piece.  Finally, 45 years after Bob let her go, after a stint back in service on the Georgetown Loop, C&S boxcar 8308 came back to the Colorado Railroad Museum. 

C&S 8308’s story continues as its bottom half looks to be a perfect fit for 8310’s upper half.  Volunteers at the Museum removed 8308’s added rider shell and have placed 8310's body on top of it.  When restoration is complete, the Golden museum will at last have a fully Colorado & Southern narrow gauge boxcar.

* C&S 1116, which had been numbered 15 at its first time on the Loop, was renumbered to its original 1116 when it returned there.  Later, it was also re-given the Grey's Peak name. 

Part 9