Here are a few photos from my family's visit to Central City's former tourist boarding site.
I knew some track had been laid up at the old tourist railroad boarding site, but I was unprepared for all that I found there on a recent visit. I made the video below to show all that is on the once-deserted property.
Online searching and a little asking-around haven't produced any substantial information. Does this project have any more "steam" in it, or is what I found just the remains of an aborted attempt at a tourist railroad resurrection. If you know something, please share...
The little background that seems available:
Here is an informational poster for a meeting five years ago regarding the project. It is also includes documents detailing the projects goals and plans.
Here is some info from 2019. This news article gives more detail about the vision.
Here is a post from 2021 when track laying started/happened.
The group's website still exists, but has not been updated for several years.
My family and I had a chance to visit the site of Forks Creek for the first time. The trails in Clear Creek have made access to some of these areas very helpful. We parked our car near highway tunnel 5 and hiked the path which begins on the grade. The grade shortly after the start once crossed Clear Creek (the abutments are still there). We followed the trail around until we reached Forks Creek.
Most photos of the area in railroad times were taken from the water tank side, but the path is on the opposite bank. The only recognizable shape from C&S days is the rock/mountain between the divisions of Clear Creek. Using this, I attempted to match up a 1939 Jackson Thode photo of C&S 71 and two gondolas on the wye. The photo can be found in Tom and Denise Klinger's amazing book, Clear Creek District Memories and Then Some.
Enjoy!
Kurt
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 more miscellaneous South Park Line/C&S-related news from the 1979 editions.
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| Fall flowers in Como, 2022 |
THE BOREAS PASS - COMO FIELD TRIP on August 18, provided an opportunity to explore a portion of the old DSP&P right-of-way, learn a bit of Colorado rail history, and take in some great scenery all at the same time.
The group started on the grade in Breckenridge as planned, making occasional stops enroute over the pass at various points of interest. Ed Haley's commentary at each stop helped us visualize what the rail and mining operations were like on the pass years ago.
Lunch at Baker's Tank was quite pleasant, and the summit of Boreas Pass was another highlight. Although it was the middle of August, Mother Nature was already trying her hand at snowmaking, fresh traces of which could be seen on some mountaintops.
Ominous looking clouds in the distance were present throughout the day, but they held off until arrival in Como. Then it was like standing under the spout of a giant water tank. The deluge prevented planned tours of the Como yards while half the group ate dinner in the Como Eating House, unfortunately, but shelter was available in the old schoolhouse.
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| The Como Hotel and Eating House Oct. 2022 |
If your travels take you through Como at either breakfast, lunch or suppertime, consider stopping in and trying out the "Como Depot Restaurant. " Their prime rib seems to be developing a reputation all by itself.
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| Remains of the DSP&P coach No. 3 |
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| Sundown & Southern |
EX-WEST SIDE SHAY NO. 8 moved to Silver Plume from Gales Creek, Oregon, last fall, passed required inspections, and began operating on the Georgetown loop in September. After several days of test runs, it was assigned to the passenger train, and has performed quite well. Last day of operations on the loop for this year will be on September 30.
(Ed. The December 1978 Rocky Mountain Rail Report stated: "COLORADO AND THE GEORGETOWN, BRECKENRIDGE & LEADVILLE RAILWAY gained another steam locomotive recently, with the arrival of ex-West Side Lumber Company's 3-foot gauge Shay Locomotive No. 8 at Silver Plume on October 12. The locomotive was trucked all the way from Banks, Oregon, and presented some challenging problems during the move, Parts had to be removed to get it down to a truck-able load, and it took several weeks to make the journey (and a truck with 11 axles and 66 tires!!). It is hoped to have it operational on the Georgetown Loop by the middle of next summer.")
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| Shay 8 on display in 2004 - Nathan D. Hale photo |
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| Bottom: west. Top: east |
The video ends at the point that today's present road (built on the old South Park roadbed) diverges from the right-of-way at Glencliff. You can see the "Y" separation at the top of the screenshot above. The railroad is the yellow line.
Below is the 1918 C&S Valuation map of Glencliff showing the 630-foot siding the side opposite of Chalk Creek. While the line from Hancock through Alpine Tunnel to Quartz was abandoned in 1910, the segment from St. Elmo east (including the portion in this video) to Buena Vista remained intact until 1924.
Conductor Oscar Perschbacher had the sad honor of giving the final C&S narrow gauge train order to the engineer of No. 76 in Leadville.
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| Boarding house Oscar helped build (behind the station) |
Perschbacher had a long career with the C&S. While he later served as a brakeman and eventually a
conductor, he began as a carpenter repairing bridges. He later moved to work at Alpine Tunnel around 1906. There he helped repair the tunnel and construct the two-story boarding house after fire had destroyed the facilities there.
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| A testimony to Perschbacher and his fellow crewmen's work: the boarding house stood for roughly 50 years after abandonment before its collapse sometime in the 1960s. |
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| Remains of the boarding house today |
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| Inside Alpine Tunnel 1948 - Ed Haley photo from the Feb. 1991 Rocky Mountain Rail Report |
Thankfully, others dug them out. Oscar credits 'Tuck' Simpson's help in getting dug out.
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| Eastbound train leaving Pitkin (H.L. Curtiss Photo) |
Oscar remarked that trains running over both Alpine and Boreas Pass had four engines. Two led up front while two pushed from the rear, just in front of the caboose. Due to the ice in winter on these lines, it was hard to get a stopped train moving again without at least four locomotives.
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| The Loop High Bridge today |
Procedures were different on the Clear Creek division of the C&S. One time Oscar and some other trainmen from the South Park division were called over to the Clear Creek Line during tourist season. He recalls being conductor on a train “racing” a doubleheader over the Georgetown Loop’s high bridge. He didn't know that the railroad had concerns about how much weight could be put on the bridge. Someone in the coach asked if he knew that they were supposed to take one engine over the bridge and then bring the rest of the train with the second engine. Oscar simply replied “No. I don’t, but it’s too late now!”
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| Relaid track in the South Park today |
Speaking of speed, Oscar marveled at the speed of the fast freights from Denver to Leadville. As a brakeman he rode on top with his brake club in hand and enjoyed what he called a “wild ride.” Sometimes that speed came to trouble, particularly in the South Park at night. It was hard to see what was on the tracks and a few times his trains hit cattle.
Dips in the track due to a slight washout were another issue. The daring engineers, whom Oscar called “hogheads,” seemed to fire through them at speed to get over the inverted humps. He commented, “They killed a lot of good men that way.”
The adventures on the C&S never cease to amaze a flatlander like me!
While researching the history of C&S refrigerator car 1113/RGS 2101, I came upon a number of photos taken by Ralph Hawkins' father John C. Hawkins and Ralph's mother Lucille Hawkins. Ralph graciously shared his photos with me. Visit HawkinsRails.net for more of his and his father's work.
The photos below were taken June 1959 at Ridgway, Colorado. You will also see a Rio Grande Southern coach and RGS caboose 0400. The caboose was used in the 1969 movie True Grit and later acquired by Jerry Albers. He owned it from 1973 to roughly 1990. The story of his acquisition and restoration of the caboose can be found here.
