Central City mystery structure

[Dave Eggleston]

The detail below is from DPL x-2531, a rare photo including Central City railroad facilities taken before the C&S. The flat roof of the Hawley warehouse dates the photo before 1895 and the missing 1879 coal bin dates it after ca 1887. One remaining coal spur bent juts out from the telegraph pole's base at the left edge of the cribbed retaining wall.



This photo answers a lot of questions but there's a mystery: Do any of the Central City experts on this forum know what the partial structure behind the Central City section house was? It looks like a root cellar, possibly built out of the ruins of a foundation, perhaps dating to pre-fire 1870s. It is drawn on the 1918 ICC map without description, leading me to believe the railroad potentially owned it. Can anyone clarify what this structure was? Thanks!

[Chris Walker]

Dave,

there is a 8'x10' Cellar listed in the Colorado Central book.

[Dave Eggleston]

Thanks, Chris. This is not listed in Poor nor the CRM book and I should've looked again at the CC book.

Your suggestion seems the most plausible explanation. The mounded dirt roof built over an older foundation had me thinking along those lines but I couldn't confirm it.

I'm suspecting the listed dimensions are the internal cellar space. So overall size was likely closer to 12'x14'. I wish the ICC map
were more helpful. Hmmm.

[Rick Steele]

Don't worry Dave,

It's not listed in the 1893 UP receiver's inventory, either.

Rick

[Dave Eggleston]

Thanks, Rick! I've got what I think is your transcription of that inventory and didn't see it on there, either, nor on early 1890s station listings published in Bogies & The Loop. The CCRR book consolidates several sources into a single list for each station but without dating, making it tricky to untangle for a given timeframe.

So there is a construction sitting behind the section house in a pre-1896 photo. Maybe it was not part of company property at that time? Being behind the section house, and seemingly there in the period I'm dealing with, I have no choice about modeling it as part of the scene.  

[South Park]

  Incorrect period representation like this will likely result
in Federal prosecution, under the Narrow Gauge Modeling
Act.  They have become very strict about this in recent months,
on account of the insurrection.  One of the agitators, disguised
as a child:

[Dave Eggleston]

That kid wasn't even born yet. Shoo, ya little bugger! Find some trouble elsewhere.