The C&S saved a few pieces of narrow gauge rolling stock like engines 71, 60, and 9, as well as coach 70, caboose 1006, gondola 4319, combine 20, and the three passenger cars now in Silver Plume.
Sales to other railroads inadvertently led to the saving of others like engines 74 and 32 (DSP&P 191), the refrigerator and stock car at the Colorado Railroad Museum, and the two reconstructed boxcars at Breckenridge and Boreas Pass.
Curiously, the other source of rolling stock salvation has been a bit surprising-use as sheds.
Old railroad cars have sometimes been purchased by local individuals to be used as sheds. Two C&S baggage cars, #2 and #3 both retired in January 1939, found a prolonged life this way. Both ended up on the ground near Longmont, Colorado. #2, specifically, was dismantled in July 1939 and the body sold to F.W. Kimmel of Lyon, Colorado.
Baggage car #3, however, though sighted for decades as a shed, was destroyed by a developer in 2005, despite assurances that it would be saved. According to Jason Midyette, "another C&S car on the property, possibly thought to be Baggage/Mail car 11, was destroyed at the same time."
Her identical sister, #2, however, found a new home. In 1980 the 1874 baggage car was moved to the Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer in Grand Island, Nebraska. The baggage car is reportedly not in good shape, having rotted quite a bit from her years as a shed, but is preserved nonetheless.
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| C&S 1008 |
A few other cars survived for a period of time as sheds or tool cars. Combination car #30 was converted to a tool car and then used as a shed in Leadville. Mallory Hope Ferrell's
C&Sng lists it still there as late as 1959. Mail-coach #42 was dismantled in May of 1939, and then the body was sold, and placed on the ground at the end of the Silica branch. I could find no details of the whereabouts of either car at the present time.
Caboose 1008 is an example of another car that survived as a shed. It was discovered in California, decades after it was assumed scrapped. It is now undergoing restoration.
Another recent car saved from toolshed life was C&S boxcar 8027. According to the GoFundMe
page that helped bring this car home to Como, 8027 was "'Dismantled' in Denver in January of 1939. Stripped of its metal parts, the carbody was sold to a farmer east of Boulder where it was used as a calving shed and general storage until early 2005. Acquired by a private owner in 2005, the car was slowly restored over the next several years." That owner, Jason Midyette, did a stunning job restoring it in Kansas, and it now resides in Como.
Well finally, the good news! Two more piece of C&S rolling stock have been found!!!
The South Park Rail Society recently announced, "We have successfully acquired the only two C&S type 2 boxcars currently known to exist. These two cars are located on a farm in Western Colorado. The South Park Rail Society needs your assistance to raise the required funds to load and ship these boxcars to Como Colorado for restoration and display. Additionally some of the funds will be used to purchase and ship two original sets of historically correct "Bettendorf" Cast steel narrow gauge trucks to go under these boxcars. The final phase of the project will see all of these boxcars restored to operational condition."
This is quite honestly an amazing discovery!
Please follow this link to learn more and
to contribute a gift to help this excellent work come to fruition.
Photos below are from the Fund Raising site.
