1976 C&S news (2) - Tales of riding the South Park, passing of Dow Helmers, paint for Silver Plume depot

[Kurt Maechner]

I looked through the archive of the Rocky Mountain Rail Report, the newsletter of the Rocky Mountain Railroad Club, and put a post together with some more miscellaneous South Park Line/C&Sng news from the 1976 editions including:

Haley & Kindig share about their ride from Denver to Leadville on the C&S
A report about a presentation by Ed Haley and Richard Kindig where they shared about their personal experience of riding the South Park Line from Denver to Leadville.

RMRRC Day at the Georgetown Loop
The very young Loop, under the name of The Georgetown, Breckenridge, & Leadville, used consolidation No. 44 as well as a diesel to haul Club passengers over the line from Silver Plume to the end-of-track.  This is before the high bridge had been completed.  I'm not exactly sure how far the track extended at this point.

The loss of Dow Helmers
Dow Helmers, author of Historic Alpine Tunnel, died that year and the newsletter gave a little bit of Helmers' background.  His book, that I picked up at a local library, was my first introduction to the South Park Line and the tunnel after I providentially read an article about the tunnel in a magazine I picked up at a rummage sale at age 13.

DSP&P Memorial Edition neared completion
The Club's Memorial reprint of Mac Poor's DSP&P book was close to being sent out.

Enjoy!
Kurt