An eyewitness tale of riding the "Graveyard Run" in Clear Creek

In the June 1939 issue of Railroad Magazine a Burlington employee from South Dakota wrote an article describing a sad but historic ride he took on the Clear Creek Line. M.L. Hart saw a notice that the Colorado & Southern was going to abandon its narrow gauge line west of Idaho Springs including the Georgetown Loop. He asked and received permission to ride what he called the "Graveyard Run" on January 30th, 1939. 

Along the way, riding in the caboose and later a gondola of gravel, he chats with conductor Billy Maas who later pushes a caboose with his bare hands, interacts with famed railroad photographer Richard Kindig, watches the switching at Forks Creek, witnesses construction of Highway 6 in the canyon, and hears the annoyance of a workman in Empire complaining about the railroad's choice to cut the line farther east. Lastly, he takes a trip by car up to Georgetown just two months before the tracks will be torn up.

In the page below the author claims that the high bridge of the Georgetown Loop was originally built of wood. I've never heard that before. My guess is this is incorrect.

Thank you to Jim Reisdorff, publisher at South Platte Press, who graciously sent me any C&Sng articles that he came across while sifting through his old collection of Railroad Magazine. Jim is presently editing a book I wrote on C&Sng restorations.