C&S refrigerator car and boxcar at Magic Mountain 1959

 In 1959 Magic Mountain opened in Colorado. It was a theme park styled after the stunningly successful new Disneyland. In keeping with Disneyland's design they constructed a narrow gauge train ride. To get narrow gauge rolling stock the park reached out to Bob Richardson who was in the process of moving equipment from the original Narrow Gauge Museum in Alamosa to the new Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden.

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 Rio Grande Southern engine 42, D&RGW high side gondola 1187,  and RGS caboose 0409  for use on the tourist-hauling park train. 

In the video below you can see glimpses of this train starting at 1:31.

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

Sadly, Magic Mountain closed up in less than a year. The cars moved around many times, even becoming part of a restaurant at the site. 

Today, 1116 still operates on the Georgetown Loop. 8308's frame and trucks are at the Colorado Railroad Museum.

The tales of C&S boxcars 8308 and 8310

 There's an odd, hard-to-see narrow gauge car at the Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden. Surprisingly, it is a combination of two former Colorado and Southern Ry. boxcars, one of which also served on the Rio Grande Southern. While one car was rescued from demolition while being a shed, the other was rescued, sold, became a tourist car, served as a food stand, and finally came back to her rescuer. C&S boxcars 8308/8261 and 8310 now rest together at Golden's museum. This video tells their meandering histories.

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.)

The Railroad Riches of Golden, part 7

See Part 1 here.
See Part 2 here.

See Part 3 here.

See Part 4 here.

See Part 5 here.

See Part 6 here.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1973

GOLDEN, COLORADO

THE COLORADO RAILROAD MUSEUM

Today, seventy one years after she was shipped away from her home state, Bob witnesses DSP&P 191 arrive in Golden after her journey via standard gauge gondola and then motor truck. He is relieved the 2-8-0 made it.  Along the way from Wisconsin, the engine was briefly ‘lost’ when an ice storm caused a break in communication lines with the Santa Fe.  Thankfully, she was ‘found’ and made the rest of the journey without incident.

Despite the cool February Rocky Mountain air, it is still warmer than, as Bob will later write, the “usual zeroish winter weather” of northern Wisconsin where she was shipped from. This may give the Colorado Railroad Museum crew hope that the 191’s wheels can finally be convinced to move.

The 93-year old locomotive rests on a lowboy trailer in the museum yard, waiting for the adjacent crane, it’s tall spindly arm pointed high with cables descending around the engine, to finally reunite 191 with rails on native soil.  With only a stubby running board where a cow catcher pilot once proudly strutted forward, an elongated smokebox added from one of the logging roads where her original shorter one should be, and her original balloon smoke stack long ago replaced with a thin straight one, she lacks some of the distinctive features that would tag her as her former 1880s self, though in reality her main structure has actually changed very little since she left the Baldwin Locomotive Works.

Regardless of her look, she is a gem, the oldest native Coloradan locomotive in the state, the museum’s only South Park engine, and the most authentic DSP&P loco in existence.  It has cost more than $8000 to get No.191, along with her stiff wheels, to this spot, but finally, the cables running up to the crane’s arm, cables that seem so small compared to 191’s 56,000 pound girth, lift her in the air and then ever so gently set her down on Colorado rails.

Denver, South Park & Pacific No. 191 is home.  

But like a stubborn child, her wheels still will not move. 

The Colorado Railroad Museum’s small Plymouth diesel was called on to assist 191’s mobility issues.  The little diesel tugged and pushed, but the 2-8-0’s wheels, doused with penetrating oil, refused to rotate.  The process was continued for several weeks by a surely discouraged crew until the amount of oil used reached into the gallons.  Suddenly, one day, the Plymouth “Peewee” locomotive tugged once more and DSP&P 191’s wheels moved for the first time in four decades.

Despite the thousands of dollars spent to get her to Golden, a cost that was gratefully later diminished by the sale of the other Mexican engine and a few cars to the Huckleberry tourist railroad in Michigan, the engine that struck out its pilot north of Gunnison towards the Pacific, towards a grade that was never completed, and the same engine that was later shipped so far east had finally come to rest in the state that nearly a century ago had called for her birth.

*******

Post-Bob Richardson: One more acquisition and a prodigal returns

It was a triumph and a joy to bring No. 191 back home again in 1973, and eighteen years later Bob made the decision to also go home.  In 1991, after 33 years at the helm of the Colorado Railroad Museum, it was time for Bob to rest on his laurels and retire.  Like 191 did at the birth of the twentieth century, Bob moved east.  While he loved his Colorado narrow gauge relics, even they could not compare to being near family, and so Bob packed up his belongings and settled in Pennsylvania.  

While this tale will now take two short branch lines away from Bob Richardson’s journey, both occurred before his passing.  Two Colorado & Southern narrow gauge rolling stock stories from the post-Richardson era at CRRM bear telling.  The first relates to a car that was saved and then nearly lost by a contemporary of Richardson’s.  The second concerns a twist of fate regarding one of the C&S freight cars Bob himself saved, but later sold after the move to Golden.

The only fully intact C&S refrigerator car  

While Bob Richardson remained a bachelor his whole life, he knew how to pass on a legacy as good parents do with their children.  When he left his position and the state in 1991, the Colorado Railroad Museum that he left behind continued to flourish and save history, including more pieces of the Colorado & Southern narrow gauge.  

One very important piece of C&S rolling stock that came to Golden after Bob’s tenure arrived through a sad demise.  Unlike Bob Richardson and Cornelius Hauck, who built their museum with a vision to outlast themselves, another Coloradan who also amassed large quantities of saved narrow gauge equipment seemed to have lacked such foresight.

  Don Drawer operated a small airport in the Colorado prairie near Fort Lupton, north of Denver, but his dreams revolved more so around trains than airplanes.  In the early 1970’s he started snatching up whatever narrow gauge equipment he could find, moving it to his large property with plans to construct and operate a narrow gauge steam railroad and a fictional town where visitors could come to learn all aspects of train operation.  He named his railroad-to-be the Sundown & Southern.

By 1972, when Bob and Cornelius were just learning of their chance to acquire No. 191, Don had already amassed over 200 pieces of rolling stock, including C&S refrigerator car 1113, last used on the Rio Grande Southern.  Unlike her sister survivor C&S refrigerator 1116, acquired by Bob back in 1954 and later sold to the failed Magic Mountain resort, 1113 was not cut up and turned into an amusement park piece.  Instead, Drawer had her moved to Fort Lupton just as she was found in Ridgway, Colorado after being on display there for roughly two decades since the demise of the Rio Grande Southern, still fully intact as she was designed: an old, but authentic, narrow gauge refrigerator car.

The Bogies and the Loop

Drawer’s lack of foresight will later be evidenced, but he certainly made up for this in tenacity.  For just one example, his growing collection, that included C&S 1113, was in need of an engine and he set out to get one.  In an epic move, Don traveled to Central America in order to personally escort a steam locomotive,* business car, and caboose from the country of Guatemala to his Sundown & Southern.  On his way north, tragedy struck when the business car was ransacked by vandals and thieves while the train sat on the track overnight.  Numerous fixtures and historical features were stolen.  Don refused to let this setback stop him and he continued north with plans to restore the engine, committed to his dream because, as the Fort Collins Coloradan newspaper that reported the incident put it that year, “as a railroad nut, he loves it.”

Sadly, the fire in the boiler of Don Drawer’s determination never caught flame.  According to his son Brian, “red tape and county politics” kept his father’s dream from ever becoming reality.  Hundreds of pieces of narrow gauge equipment, in various stages of disrepair, littered his property when he died in the early 2000s, leaving pieces like C&S refrigerator car No. 1113 with an uncertain future.  

The Bogies and the Loop

While the passing of Don Drawer’s dreams and the Sundown & Southern was tragic, he saved lots of equipment that might otherwise have been lost, and when the derelict rolling stock was auctioned off in 2002, it allowed many pieces to get into more steady hands, including refrigerator car No. 1113 which was purchased by CRRM for $500.  Moved to the Museum, the only fully intact surviving C&S refrigerator car was restored in gleaming yellow paint and adorned with the lettering of the line she spent most of her life serving. 

* International Railways of Central America No. 111, later used on the Georgetown Loop

Part 8