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.