C&S Photos on eBay.

[Jim Courtney]

A "Loop" photo I've never seen before:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/REAL-PHOTO-1911-COLORADO-SOUTHERN-C-S-ENGINE-7-GEORGETOWN-LOOP-COLORADO/143648859901?hash=item217223a6fd:g:LKoAAOSw8T9e~2W1








Maybe Ken Martin can ID the passenger cars . . .

[Ken Martin]

Jim,

It's a little blurry but the first car is a mail coach (40-43) then either 78 or 79 and then a tourist car.

Ken Martin

[SteveG]

The only photos I can find of a mail coach with a matching head-end roof jack would suggest #40 (c.f. NG Pictorial VIII, p. 190).

Steve Guty

[Jim Courtney]

It's the dog-days of August and no one seems to be posting, so let's look at some photos.

A gaggle of C&S photos just posted on eBay:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/COLORADO-SOUTHERN-RAILROAD-NG-2-8-0-LOCOMOTIVE-537-w-TRAIN/402373094293?hash=item5daf4e2b95:g:iKQAAOSwhNNfQAVU


CB&Q 537 takes water behind the Leadville depot on a hazy winter morning. Is the engineer reminding the fireman that he hasn't swept the cinders off the engineer's running board??


https://www.ebay.com/itm/COLORADO-SOUTHERN-RAILROAD-NG-LOCOMOTIVE-9-ORIG-PHOTO-FREIGHT-TRAIN-CROSSING/124307507116?hash=item1cf14e07ac:g:0qgAAOSwG-dfQABW


An engineer's side broadside view of C&S 9 at Como.


https://www.ebay.com/itm/COLORADO-SOUTHERN-RAILROAD-NG-COMBINATION-CAR-025-ORIG-PHOTO-on-FREIGHT-TRAIN/124307513717?hash=item1cf14e2175:g:SckAAOSwIuhfQAJs


The Central City combine before display, as work car 025, in the Denver yard.



https://www.ebay.com/itm/COLORADO-SOUTHERN-RAILROAD-2-8-0-NG-LOCOMOTIVE-69-ORIG-PHOTO-DENVER-ROUNDHOUSE/402373006276?hash=item5daf4cd3c4:g:1EQAAOSw1g1fP~yN


C&S 69 in repose by the Denver roundhouse.


https://www.ebay.com/itm/COLORADO-SOUTHERN-RAILROAD-NG-LOCOMOTIVE-70-ORIG-PHOTO-w-TRAIN-LEAVING-DENVER/124307500395?hash=item1cf14ded6b:g:8-sAAOSwryRfP~6V


A Clear Creek freight, headed by C&S 70, prepares to leave the Denver yard. The head brakeman is waiting to line the train to the mainline.


https://www.ebay.com/itm/COLORADO-SOUTHERN-RAILROAD-NARROW-GAUGE-PASSENGER-STOPPED-AT-TUNNEL-PASSENGERS/402373074724?hash=item5daf4ddf24:g:poUAAOSwxr1fQAMS


For those who prefer an earlier era, this DSP&P / DL&G passenger train has stopped just shy of the west portal of Alpine Tunnel, on its way to Como and Denver. The diamond stack suggests to me late 1880's vs early 1890's. I can't tell if this is some sort of summer excursion special or a regular passenger train. The consist has a baggage/smoker combine and another of those chair cars with the tall windows and skinny fascia. I can't tell if the last car is a coach or a sleeper or perhaps a business car. Paging Ken Martin . . .


The same eBay vendor has nine other photos for sale, but I've seen them, have them in my collection and/or they have been posted on Roper's Forum.  To see all the offers, use this link: https://www.ebay.com/sch/m.html?_odkw=&_ssn=rustyrail&hash=item1cf14ddbed%3Ag%3ASkUAAOSw6atfP%7E1z&item=124307495917&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=p2046732.m570.l1312&_nkw=colorado+%26+southern&_sacat=35975

[Ken Martin]

Since the UP closed the tunnel in 1890 that would put the picture in the 1880's.
I can make out the paired windows so... If it is the 1880's it is a sleeper, they were converted to coaches in 1892 and the office car in 1894. With the tunnel closed they would not have a need for sleepers.

Ken Martin

>The consist has a baggage/smoker combine and another of those chair cars with the tall windows and skinny fascia.
>I can't tell if the last car is a coach or a sleeper or perhaps a business car. Paging Ken Martin . . .

[Jeff Young]

Are those C&S reefers in the background of the #70 picture?

[Dave Eggleston]

The tunnel closed in December 1890 and reopened June 25th 1895. Did no diamond stacks remain in 1895-ish?

[Robert McFarland]

It would seem that there were Diamond stacked short smokeboxed engines  at least around 1904-05.

[Dave Eggleston]

Thanks! It would be interesting if at all possible to tie this down more.
The shed doesn't seem good to use for dating as it changed a lot over the years.
A circa 1886 photo by WH Jackson of Mason #42 and coach shows a harp switch stand and side track laid on the waste pile, probably in use for the annual tunnel clearing efforts. I don't see a spur in Jim's photo. Could be the angle.
It seems the passenger cars are the best clue for timing, but I'm a novice on the passenger car variations. Car lettering isn't clear in the scan--maybe in the original?
Ken, is it possible to verify more detail differences in these cars between the 1880s and 1890s due to the rebuilds you mention? It seems from the passenger car website the sleepers didn't visibly change, at least not the window arrangement.

[Jim Courtney]

A very nice vintage cabinet card copy of this iconic image now listed:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/ALPINE-TUNNEL-PITKIN-GUNNISON-COUNTY-COLORADO-COLORADO-SOUTHERN-RWY-ca-1900/174636737846?_trksid=p2485497.m4902.l9144

[Jim Courtney]

A couple of weeks ago I did some eBay bidding on several pages from an old photo album--unfortunately I lost.

Evidently, the owner of the album took a trip to Denver in the mid-1920s and made the C&S excursion up Clear Creek to the Loop and Silver Plume. The photos are not great in terms of quality, likely an inexpensive camera with slow shutter speeds. The eBay reproductions are certainly not high resolution. But there are some interesting details:



Our intrepid tourist detrained and climbed down the bank of Clear Creek for this shot of the train stopped for water at Elk Creek.




Taken from the last car of the train, crossing the iron bridge at Forks, the connecting train to Blackhawk is to the left, now only a locomotive and combine.




A couple of photos in Clear Creek Canon. Proof that the flat topped excursion cars were still in use as late as the mid 1920s.



The obligatory shot of the High Bridge.




The train spotted on the tail of the Silver Plume wye. The locomotive appears to be C&S number 5. Clock tower is at right.
The Pavilion is now labeled simply "Lunch Room".  



On return to Denver, the Blackhawk combine at Forks caught the interest of our photographer. The car looks in need of a new paint job, can't make out a number--is it number 29?



This overexposed photo is the most interesting to me. I believe it is Elk Creek from the rear of the train, but it looks much more crowded than in other photos, with the car body next to the water tank and the pump house with the huge stack.

Wouldn't you love to have taken that trip??

[Chris Walker]

Nice Jim, very nice, appreciate your sharing.  The two of Elk Cr. and the one at Forks are sweet.

EBay also has https://www.ebay.com/itm/Colorado-Southern-C-S-Engine-9-with-train-at-Leadville-in-1936-8x10-Photo/293959092323?hash=item447153c863:g:jIwAAOSwoGdemSAg

listed as "at Leadville" but is really at Breckenridge.

[Jeff Young]

Great pictures, Jim!

What struck me was the lack of any high grass near the line in either of Forks Creek or Elk Creek.  Were they mowing, or did it just not grow there?

Maybe I’m just too used to all the RGS pictures where the line is rather overgrown.

[Ken Martin]

Jim,

The Combine is No. 26. I had to count the clerestory windows to be sure.

I would love to take the trip but I would want to have a high res digital camera.   8^)

Ken Martin

[Jim Courtney]

Chris, the Elk Creek photo is intriguing.

Things certainly changed over time at that site:

Your photo from http://c-sng-discussion-forum.41377.n7.nabble.com/Elk-Creek-Tank-or-Every-Now-and-Then-I-Get-Lucky-td1294.html#a1375

Probably first decade. There is a building across the tracks from the water tank, presumably a pump house, as well as some nice trees.



In the 1920's photo above, the pump house building looks different, with the huge stack from the boiler, trees are gone. The car body between the water tank and the short bridge over Elk Creek is an addition. The 1918 valuation map shows all the structures in teh photo.



By the 1930's only the tank, its cistern and the section house remain. I suspect Clear Creek occasionally took out structures and trees  with the spring flooding.

[Todd Hackett]

Here's a nice Platte Canyon scene that's part of a $5,000 album of around 400 photos covering most of the country and a 50 year time span. This is the only interesting photo that they shared in the listing. There may be more, but it's not worth $5k to me to find out.

[Southpark]

Todd, sure looks like a derailment I used in C&S Platte Canon Memories.  Check DPL Z-6026, Z-6031 and Z-6029.
Tom Klinger

[Todd Hackett]

Southpark wrote

Todd, sure looks like a derailment I used in C&S Platte Canon Memories.  Check DPL Z-6026, Z-6031 and Z-6029.
Tom Klinger

Tom - I think you're right. I'm guessing you're not planning to pay the $5k for this one either.
For everyone else, here are links to the DPL photos: DPL Z-6026, Z-6031 and Z-6029

[Chris Walker]

Pitkin gets a look

https://www.ebay.com/itm/PITKIN-GUNNISON-COUNTY-COLORADO-49-CW-ERDLEN-Union-Pacific-Railroad-ca-1885/174559388820?hash=item28a48ce494:g:p1YAAOSwJfRf1-VH

[Ken Martin]

This is a wreck of a Memorial Day excursion returning to Denver. It is at Stone spur below Foxton. The engine is about where the new road out of the canyon is.

Here is a photo of the wreck I got a while back.

Ken Martin