C&S 31 and 71

[Kurt Maechner]

Hi all,
I put together an article detailing the post-abandonment journeys of the five remaining C&S locomotives a number of years ago, but I try to update it whenever I get new info.  The last few B&L's had some great articles on C&S 31 (DSP&P 191) and 71, so using those, I updated those sections of my article.  Here is the link.

One topic that I don't have info about is this: The Georgetown Loop folks moved 71 to Silver Plume (in the early 80s I believe), but due to the resistance of Central City, had to return her.  However, based on a recent B&L article, it seems they took her to Black Hawk and the display train was put together there.  She stayed there until the late 80s group that restored her to operation.  Does anyone know why 71 was taken there and not Central City?  

Kurt
Berea, Ohio

[Chris Walker]

I thought the #71 was on display at Golden.


Golden History Museum Photo

[Kurt Maechner]

I think this photo is from when 71, the coach, and the gondola were being transported to the end of track in Black Hawk in 1941.  This looks to be the train as it passed through Golden on its way there.  It was then trucked to its display site in Central City.  

The only C&S loco in Golden today at CRRM is C&S 31 which is displayed as DSP&P/DL&G 191.  

[Kurt Maechner]

Ok, now I see the emoji...!  You got me!

[South Park]

  31 ?

  I have always thought this locomotive to have been originally
numbered 51 by the DSP&P.  Is this wrong ???

[Todd Hackett]

I don't think there was a lot of time between "The Great Train Robbery" when CHS tried to remove #71 from Central City and when the group that operated it began to "restore" it. I was in Central City when the trucker working for CHS was loading it, and the locals got the trucker to pull it into the parking lot, and then blocked it with their cars. It was not the Georgetown Loop Railroad that acquired the locomotive and arranged to move it to Silver Plume, but the Colorado Historical Society. The GLR had people on hand in an advisory capacity at the request of CHS, and they would likely have been expected to work on the restoration, but they weren't directly involved. I must not have had my camera with me (I usually kept track of events by keeping notes on my slide boxes and negative sleeves), and I don't remember the date, but I think it was October 16 or 17, 1986. I worked for the federal government around that time, starting in December 1985, and I remember that this was on a weekday during a government shutdown (which according to my web search tonight lasted from Thursday October 16 through Sunday October 19, 1986), so I was free to spend what should have been a day at work watching this go down. I remember that the locals got scared when word came in that the feds would be brought in (FBI?) because they were interfering with interstate commerce (as far as I know, this was just a rumor that was spreading, and no federal authorities had been contacted), and finally moved their cars. I don't think that the whole train ever moved to Silver Plume, but I remember either the loco or its tender sitting on the semi trailer in the Silver Plume yard for a while when CHS was giving the people of Central City a chance to buy it from them (for the same price they had paid the Opera House, who had owned it). This photo was taken after it was set up in Black Hawk, in either December 1986 or January 1987:

I don't know why they picked this spot, but this was an easy place to off load. Just a few months later, on May 23, 1987, I found it under steam inside a plastic work enclosure during the process of getting it ready to return to service. By this time, a local historical group had acquired it and negotiated a lease with the people who would operate it.

[Todd Hackett]

South Park wrote

31 ?

  I have always thought this locomotive to have been originally
numbered 51 by the DSP&P.  Is this wrong ???

DSP&P 51, renumbered to DSP&P 191 in 1885 (becoming DL&G 191), then to C&S 31 in 1899, before being sold and leaving Colorado in 1902.

[Kurt Maechner]

Wow!  Great photos, Todd!

[Chris Walker]

Todd,

so glad you posted that picture of the 71-4319-20 display,  this really fills in the gaps.  

For years I have tried to find another photo of the Ph-1 coal with Block C&S that I had briefly been shown in '82.  After bringing my Ph1 to Denver in '94 Derrell had remarked about the use of the Block since he knew of no Ph-1 carrying Block lettering.  I said I'd seen a picture of one once, wasn't sure of any other details about it or where I saw it even, I just knew I had seen one.

Derrell also said obviously no-one else at the Nat N.G. Conv. knew any different since I placed First in Freight cars with that model.  I have since found a photo of the Coal cars prior to ph1 coals that had Block but even back in the 80's I was aware of the detail differences.

This posting, it really has made my day and shows I was duped since as a greenhorn from the South Pacific in '82, I wasn't aware of that era of display.

[Kurt Maechner]

In the September/October 1988 Narrow Gauge and Shortline Gazette it stated, "#71 and the two pieces of rolling stock were trucked back, and parked near the highway for all to see."  I don't know if 'for all to see' means that the site was chosen because of its visibility or that it happened to be a very visible location.

Also, from this, it seems that the loco, the combine, and the gondola made the move.  The tender, however, was the one that never made it out of Central City.