A wealth of railfan history exists in the archives of the Rocky Mountain Rail Report, the newsletter of the Rocky Mountain Railroad Club started in 1939. Here is some miscellaneous South Park Line/C&S-related news from the 1965 editions.
1965
February
(Former RPO clerk on Clear Creek line dies)
It is with a sad and heavy heart that we bring to our membership the news of the loss of a dear friend -- our old-timer Bert Fullman. Bert devoted his time these last years with unfailing loyalty and diligence to the monthly mailings of these newsletters and to his participation in the affairs of the Rocky Mountain Railroad Club as an active member of the Club and its Board of Directors. The old gentleman passed away in Denver General Hospital Thursday evening, January 21.
Bert, the youngest of 11 children, and the last of a family of 13, was born August 6, 1879, in Omaha, and proudly proclaimed himself a "Nebraska bug-eater" who had never been farther east than North Platte after he came west. The house at 527 Josephine Street in Denver, where he lived alone, is the one into which his family moved in 1881 when they came west. His tales of the town when he was a boy have been the subject of interesting conversation among his friends on numerous occasions.
Bert started railroading as an RPO clerk in 1902 on the C&S between Denver-Greeley, Denver-Silver Plume over the Georgetown Loop, and Denver-Clarendon, Texas. In 1908 he transferred to the Denver, Northwestern & Pacific run from Denver to Yampa, Colorado, when Dave Moffat's road was still building west to Steamboat Springs. He told us of a trip made during one summer long ago when his consignment of mail sacks contained somewhere a brick of limburger cheese. The combination of heat, cheese and confinement was overpowering, according to Bert, and he finally had to resort to tracking down the offensive package, which he proceeded to wrap securely with post office twine and hang outside the car. But the mail was delivered!
Perhaps this harrowing experience brought about his departure from the Postal service. In any event he went to work for the Moffat Road as engine watchman at Hot Sulphur Springs in 1911, then worked as a fireman out of Tabernash, and was promoted to engineer west of that terminal in July, 1917. His first trip as a hogger, however, was on mallet engine 214 in helper service east from Tabernash to Corona. On this particular trip he also fired the engine on portions of the run since his fireman had just been released from the hospital. They dropped down the hill light to Arrow, where they took coal and water, then worked back up the hillon a drag. And it was six weeks of this steady, back breaking work before he finally had time to make his "student" trip as engineer over the line from Tabernash west to Phippsburg.
During his days as fireman he also worked on trains 1-2 using the little ex-Chesapeake Beach 4-4-0 engines 390 and 391 between Phippsburg and Craig -- the feebleminded run" he termed it.
Bert gave us all this information during the course of a Thanksgiving celebration last November. Bright, alert, cheerful, humorous and loyal to the end, this old fellow will be cherished in the memories of many of us as a genuine friend and true gentleman.
May
(Life in St. Elmo)
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| St. Elmo 2018 |
The meeting held in April was highlighted by the interesting and amusing illustrated story of the life of Chalk Creek Canon and St. Elmo, prepared and related by Club member Don Smith. With appropriate tape-recorded music as background, Don introduced to us the present and recent occupants of the valley, then led us into the story of the Stark family of St. Elmo, and the eccentricities of the last survivors -- Annabelle and Tony -- whose confidences and friendship he came to value and enjoy during the last few years of their lives. Don's scenes of the living conditions of this remarkable pair in their "Home Comfort Hotel" and Stark Bros. General Store cannot be described, but their impact upon the large audience was noticeable.
June
(Dow Helmers-last man in Alpine Tunnel?)
Club member Dow Helmers of Pueblo, author of HISTORIC ALPINE TUNNEL -- the detailed story of the construction and life of the first tunnel to pierce the Continental Divide in Colorado -- will present his intriguing slide show of the early and recent happenings at this shrine of railfans. Mr. Helmers was among the last to gain access to the interior of Alpine Tunnel; his flash pictures and the fascinating story resulting from his research into this last remaining monument to the old South Park Line provide both a remarkable tribute to the courageous pioneers who built and operated this facility, and a program which will be long remembered. (Ed. It seems a number of people have claimed the title of the last person inside the Alpine Tunnel. Another, quoted in one of Daniel Edwards' books, said he was the last, 21 years after Dow Helmers, in 1986. In 1992 a production team released yet another inside visit that they filmed on a VHS tape titled "Alpine Tunnel: The Inside Story." Here is some background of this production. Here is a post exploring whether or not the Alpine Tunnel has been sealed)
(Poor shares how he came to write his book DSP&P)
At our May meeting a large audience gave undivided attention to an engaging talk by Club member M. C. "Mac" Poor. After a flowing and flattering introduction by member Charles S. Ryland, Mac read to us a paper which he had prepared discussing the origin of his famous history, DENVER, SOUTH PARK & PACIFIC, published in a 1,000-copy edition by the Rocky Mountain Railroad Club in 1949, in the group's first venture into the field.
Mac's first interest in the little railroad developed in the summer of 1937 when he paid his initial visit to Colorado as a railfan. Upon returning to his home in Chicago, his curiosity about the abandoned roadbeds he had seen and photographed prompted an investigation into their background. As is sometimes the case, the notes started for the pleasant purpose of learning something about the road never seemed to stop accumulating -- ten years later they had turned into a 1,100 page typewritten manuscript!
The good intentions of the organization which originally intended publication subsided in proportion to the quantity of material Mac assembled, and the search turned then to someone who would undertake publication of the story in its entirety. Happily, our organization, in which Mac holds membership card #9, after much consideration and soul-searching into the financial risk involved in a venture of such unknown quantity, agreed to back his work, with financing guaranteed by promissory notes signed by several individual Club members.
The contract with the printer, our faithful and loyal friend Louis Doughty and his World Press, was signed in August, 1948. The job was so large it was necessary, after setting about half the text in type, to proceed with the printing so that the metal could be melted and reset for the second half of the book, Finally, in December, 1949, the finished book was ready for distribution to those who had sent in their money 15 months before at the pre-publication price of $10,00 per copy. To the delight of all (and the relief of those who had guaranteed the financing) the book found an enthusiastic market, and all copies were sold by the end of April, 1960.
In thus recounting the experiences involved in publishing the first of the Club's historical works, Mac revived many memories among old-time members, and acquainted all of us with the tremendous amount of digging and persevering effort required to search out historical information of authenticity. (Ed. Here is a link to an article Poor wrote covering similar territory and published in this same year in 1965 in the Denver Westerner's newsletter)
July
(Dow Helmers shares Charles Webb photos of Alpine Tunnel)
After a hearty meal, which included an enormous serving of excellent prime rib of beef at the well-known Hochlandhof, those in attendance were treated to an inspiring program covering "Historic Alpine Tunnel," presented by Club member Dow Helmers of Pueblo,
Author of the detailed volume of the same title published by Sage Books of Denver in 1963, Mr. Helmers has acquired an intimate knowledge of his subject. His slides range from scenes of the days of construction of the historic shrine through its periods of operation, and end with fascinating views of the interior of the tunnel made with flash by Pueblo photographer Charles Webb in recent years before the west portal was blocked entirely by Nature's relentless forces, the entire show being accompanied by a beautifully prepared text narrated in just the proper and appropriate style.
September
(1881 description of Como)
"COMO -- Park County, population 500, situated on the South Park Division, Union Pacific Railway, eighty-eight miles from Denver. It is an eating station and the junction of the Breckenridge Branch, now building, which makes the town a lively one. Extensive coal mines are located near the town; also some rich quartz mines a few miles to the westward. The coal vein is from seven to ten feet in thickness, of good coking quality, owned by the Railroad Company, who use large quantities of it, and ship much more. Como is reached by daily trains; fare $7.35." -- Crofutt's Grip-Sack Guide of Colorado; Overland Publishing
Company, Omaha, 1881.
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