1973 C&S News - M.C. Poor passes, High Country RR is born, DSP&P 191 returns to CO

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 1973 editions.  No C&S-related info showed up in the 1972 editions

1973

May

(Mac Poor's Passing)

MEMBERS OF THE RMRRC will be saddened to hear of the passing of Mac Poor, one of Colorado's
foremost railroad historians, and the author of one of the most famous railroad histories ever published, "DENVER, SOUTH PARK & PACIFIC” (1949), He died Tuesday, April 17, 1973 at St. Joseph Hospital in Denver, after a short illness. 

Mr. Poor was a long time member of the Rocky Mountain Railroad Club, and was well liked by all those who knew him, either personally, or as a fellow railfan and history buff.  He was also a member of the Denver Posse of the Westerners, the Colorado Consistory A & A S R, the Union Lodge #1 of the Odd Fellows, and was active in the Highlands Methodist Church. 

Poor holding up the result of his 10 year journey

Born in Caledonia, Washington County, Missouri, on June 28, 1901, Mr. Poor lived in Chicago for many years, retiring in Texas in 1950, and moving to Denver in 1952. 

His interest in the South Park Railroad began with visits to Colorado in the early 1930's.  In 1938, he began gathering material for a complete history of the famous branch of the Colorado & Southern Railway.  Ten years of devoted work went into the compilation and preparation of this material and his book was published by the Rocky Mountain Railroad Club in 1949.  It has since become one of the most sought after railroad books in the World. 

In 1959, he co-authored “PICTORIAL SUPPLEMENT TO DENVER, SOUTH PARK & PACIFIC”, and had previously written short histories of the Denver, Boulder & Western Railroad and the Argentine Central Railway. 

He was buried in Bonham, Texas. Mr, Poor is survived by his wife, Cleta, and a brother, George L. Poor of Sunnyvale, California.  A Mac Poor Memorial Fund has been established at the Highlands United Methodist Church, West 32nd Avenue and Osceola St, Denver, Colorado 80212, 

April

(High Country Railroad is Born)

HIGH COUNTRY RAILROAD at Heritage Square, Colorado's newest railroad, a 24" gauge, 1 ½ mile scenic tourist line, is the result of the efforts of 5 Rocky Mountain Railroad Club members. Stuart Anderson. Jim Ehernberger, Ed Gerlits, Dave Gross, Dan Peterson and non-member Jim Karins. 

Three years ago, they acquired 2 German built 0-4-0's and during the course of time completely overhauled one of the locos to an extent she never enjoyed before. Resplendent in 11 coats of orange and black automotive enamels, with new electric headlight, flues, steam fittings, lubricators. etc., the group invited the RMRRC members to share in their enthusiasm of operating for the first time over a short piece of track on the Anderson Farm near Boulder. 

The group subsequently faced the problem of what to do with a completely overhauled locomotive. Does one just play with her or put her to work in come capacity? The group chose to formally incorporate and find a place to operate. Soon they emerged with a lease from the Woodmoor Corporation, tore up the old 3' gauge of the former Magic Mountain RR, graded and relaid the track to 2’ gauge. Two new excursion cars were commissioned and built by the Great Western Ry in Loveland, Colorado, a private car was acquired and shipped from Indiana, air brakes applied to the cars and by October 1, 1972, the High Country RR was in full operation. 

The line, complete with high fills, deep cuts, trestle, show shed and whistle echo's winds around the foothills, around Lake Heritage and back through the woods on its return to the station. The line overlooks Golden and Denver and has beautiful scenic vistas. 

Heritage Square can be reached by traveling West on 6th avenue to U.S, 40, then West on U.S. 40, ¾ mile to the entrance. The railroad will be operating daily service from May 1, 1973 to October 31, 1973. The fare is $1.00 for adults and $0.50 for children and under 5 free. The address is: High Country Railroad, P.O. Box 404, Heritage Square Station, Golden, Colorado 80401 

(The High Country Railroad is not directly C&S-related, but is listed here because the previous them park railroad at Magic Mountain, which later became Heritage Square, included the use of two ex-C&S cars refrigerator car 1116 and boxcar 8308.  Both were converted to rider cars.  There was a brief hope that the original Magic Mountain train was to run again, but the 2-foot gauge High Country Railroad was built instead. -Ed.)

(DSP&P 191 Returns to Colorado!)

How 191 will look decades after her return

THUNDER LAKE LUMBER CO. (Rhinelander, Wisc.) No. 7 Ex DSP&P No. 51 narrow gauge 2-8-0 has been obtained by the Colorado Railroad Museum and is now on display at Golden, Colo. The Museum negotiated a trade whereby obtained an Ex Thunder Lake Lumber Co. engine built in 1925 from the Ferrocarril Mineral de Chihuahua and traded it to the logging museum in Rhinelander for the Ex South Park locomotive. 

(This post tells about the day of her arrival.)

C&Sng Dumont depot to restored!

Thankfully, the former C&S narrow gauge depot in Dumont survived the abandonment of the Clear Creek line.  Dumont was a station stop between Idaho Springs and Georgetown.  The line west of Idaho Springs was abandoned in 1939 along with the Georgetown Loop.  The Dumont depot remained after this.  Here is a photo of the station building in 1948, nine years after abandonment.  

The DSP&P Historical Society visited the depot in 2001 and posted the following info and photo:

"The Colorado Central depot at Dumont is still in existence.  It was in use as a private residence in 2001 and the owners were kind enough to invite DSP&PHS members inside for a tour."  Here is the link.

You can find another photo of the depot here.

The Good News

Recently, in the April 2022 edition of The Bogies and the Loop, newsletter of the DSP&P Historical Society, they announced the following: 

"Jim Jordan and the gang over at the Rocky Mountain Railroad Heritage Society have announced that they are purchasing the Dumont depot and ultimately plan to restore it."

On the Rocky Mountain Railroad Heritage site here, they posted the following details:

 "The Agreement to purchase the Dumont Depot is signed! Deep and sincere thanks to Linda Cohn who negotiated the contract with owner Ryan Berwick's attorney. We are grateful to Ryan for realizing the significance of saving the depot and working with the RMRHS to make the purchase possible."

It will be exciting to see if this former C&S depot can be another historical exhibit to preserve the memory of the Clear Creek line and be available to the public.

1970-1971 C&S News - Fighting Snow at Central City, RGS 42 and C&S cars to ride again!...or not

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 1970-1971 editions. 

1970

October

Fighting Snow at Central City

CLUB DAY SCHEDULED FOR OCTOBER 11, 1970 AT CENTRAL CITY on the Colorado Central Narrow Gauge Railway. Providing that the weather co-operates the Rocky Mountain Railroad Club will again spend a Fall Sunday riding back and forth on the Central City narrow gauge. This will be an unlimited ride ticket available at only twice the price of regular fares. Come one, come all, it will be a day of lots of steam and fun. Should the weather not permit, this trip could be cancelled without notice, as last year it required shoveling of snow in order to operate - - - this year the railroad advises they will not attempt to "dig” out the line, but normal operations should continue on into October anyhow. Come along and bring your cameras and recorders. 

1971

June

Magic Mountain Train to Run Again (or...not) 

EX RGS 42 - It is reported that Ex RGS No. 42 is back at the Magic Mountain Site, having been brought back from its storage site at Monument, Colo, by the Woodmoor Corp, who bought it in 1969.  Woodmoor is transforming the old Magic Mountain site into a commercial center that opens May 31. No. 42 is to pull a train on 1 ½ miles of narrow gauge track through a replica of a western town. (Sadly, the plan for the train did not happen.  See below)

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What Was Magic Mountain?

Here is a bit of background to the above note about Magic Mountain.  It will also explain why a note on a Rio Grande Southern engine relates to C&S news.  The excerpt below is from a series of articles I wrote exploring the C&Sng equipment saved by the Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden.

The Colo. RR Museum and Disneyland

At the same time that Bob Richardson and Cornelius Hauck were struggling to move and build their new museum (moved from Alamosa to Golden), another venture was rising from the ground in the town of Golden.  When the now-world-famous Disneyland theme park opened in California in 1955, many claimed it would fail, but it bucked all expectations and became an enormous success, which in turn directly spurred numerous copycat theme parks, the very first of which was being built in the late ‘50s right in Golden at the very same time as the Colorado Railroad Museum’s start. This new park, dubbed Magic Mountain, eagerly sought to mimic Disneyland’s old-time narrow gauge train, and naturally looked to Bob and Cornelius for some rolling stock.  

In 1959, in a heartbreaking but financially prudent move to raise money for the fledgling museum’s new building, the museum sold two of its C&S cars, refrigerator 1116 and boxcar 8308*, to Magic Mountain along with RGS engine 42 and RGS caboose 0409 for use as a tourist-hauling park train.

The pocket book was tight and unfortunately these pieces of C&S lore filled the needy coffers.  Still,

RGS 42 and possibly one of the 2 C&S cars-1959

Bob appreciated that the cars were given a chance to do what they were designed to do: haul cargo on steel rails, albeit human cargo this time.  To do this, though, unlike the RGS engine, the cars lost most of their historic appearance and design in the process of being turned into smaltzy open-air theme park pieces. Much of the two cars’ half-century old character was destroyed as everything but their frames and running gear were ripped out and discarded, only to be replaced by seats and rider car shells. 

To add insult to injury, the future prospects of the two C&S cars quickly deteriorated.  Less than a year after the hopeful grand opening of Magic Mountain, the Disneyland-copycat declared bankruptcy and closed its doors. The park’s train was then put out to pasture as a display at the Magic Mountain site.  

New Hope?

News turned hopeful again for C&S reefer 1116 and boxcar 8308 when the Woodmoor Corporation purchased the former Magic Mountain site, including the train, in hopes of reviving the spot somehow.  Initially, in 1969, nearly a decade after their last use, Woodmoor moved the train and displayed it at the corporation’s headquarters in Monument, near Colorado Springs.

The news got better, or worse, depending on one’s perspective in 1971, when the Woodmoor Corp. officially reopened the former Magic Mountain site in a new form as a themed shopping area named Heritage Square.  The good news was that the train was moved back to Golden.  The bad news was that the train was not to run but was instead converted, along with the former Magic Mountain Railroad depot, into a stationary dining area with both C&S 1116 and 8308 having their open rider car sides enclosed to serve as parts of the restaurant. 

C&S 8308 at CRRM in its unfinished rider car form

Today 

        Both cars were later purchased by the Georgetown Loop Railroad and 1116 is still used there as an
excursion car.  8308 resides at the Colorado Railroad Museum once again and is in the process of being combined with another C&S car lacking its frame.  The two are to be combined into one complete C&Sng boxcar.

*Based on research by Al Pomeroy, there is evidence that the underframe of what is usually regarded as C&S 8308 is actually C&S 8256.  Since most of the literature on the car uses the 8308 number I have kept it in this text.