Hey Pat,
Was there an operating agreement requiring C&S to provide cars to the D&RG to service their customers on these two branches, or did C&S pay car hire for use of D&RG cars to service C&S customers?I've long wondered about this, and I think I see where you are going with the question.
I've never seen a written copy of the February, 1911
Agreement for Mutual Economy, that Ken's article cites.
I can understand why the C&S, after abandoning Alpine Tunnel, wouldn't want to continue operating the Pitkin--Gunnison--Balwin line that was completely disconnected from the rest of it's narrow gauge system. (The Romely branch was different in that the Mary Murphey was still going strong, and the D&RG 3-rail main was a relatively short connection to the rest of the C&S system at Leadville).
Same for the D&RG's Blue River branch--by 1911 it was a loser. The C&S had a superior mainline that paralleled the branch and offered superior freight and passenger service. The C&S never used any of the D&RG trackage, except the stock yard track at Dillon and a connection to the D&RG spur to the smelter at Robinson. Local shippers consigning cars to the D&RG were told by C&S management to load or unload their freight at the nearest C&S siding.
But what seems odd to me is that
neither railroad ceded ownership of its track, right of way and structures to the other.
Mac Poor, in
The Memorial Edition . . . describes the terms under which the D&RG operated the C&S Gunnison area trackage:
"The Rio Grande received all revenue and paid all operating and maintenance expenses, but paid no rent to the Colorado & Southern. The latter, however, paid the taxes."As late as 1934, both railroads had to petition the ICC to abandon the Quartz-Parlin segment, as the C&S still technically owned the branch. There was consideration of abandoning the Baldwin and Kubler branches in 1934 as well but new coal deposits began generating additional revenue and the D&RGW formally acquired ownership of the Baldwin branch on July 9, 1937.
So, I don't get it! Why would the C&S pay property taxes on track, right of way and structures for 26 years and get nothing out of it??
Likewise, the D&RG paid taxes on the Blue River branch which remained completely idle for 14 years, until it was torn up in 1925.
This is speculation but I think it was likely that a "revenue sharing" agreement was part of the original contract "for mutual economy":
The Baldwin mine was located on loading spur of a branch line owned by the C&S. Technically the mine was consigning its product for shipment on the C&S. I wouldn't be surprised if the C&S was supplying empty coal cars to its shipper. The D&RG, by agreement, would operate trains to haul the coal down the C&S branch to Gunnison, then east over Marshall Pass or west to Montrose on its own lines. The C&S would receive some percentage of the "joint-haul" revenue generated.
The same could well have occurred on the Blue River branch. Surviving D&RG customers after 1911 were the smelter at Robinson, and mills at Kokomo and Frisco. Perhaps the D&RG supplied cars for "its" customers and the C&S did the actual hauling, the D&RG receiving some percentage of the revenue. The only photos that I have ever seen of D&RG freight cars in C&S trains are at Climax, Kokomo and near Dillon.
Is there any evidence to support this speculation?
According to Sandra F Pritchard's book,
Roadside Summit, The Human Landscape, Solitude siding on the C&S (opposite the D&RG station of Wheeler) was a major shipping point for sheep. This fascinating tidbit is included:
"In September, 1917, two shipments went to Denver; the first filled 5 double decker cars; the second 13 cars; a final third shipment filled 9 or 10 more cars of the same type . . . a maximum of 80-84 sheep per car." The author specifically states that these were D&RG cars, despite the fact that The D&RG hadn't operated their Blue River branch since February, 1911. This might suggest that per the joint operating agreement between the two roads, D&RG business in the Ten Mile was still handled in D&RG cars but by C&S trains on C&S track. Presumably, the sheep were loaded at the C&S Solitude siding on the C&S. It is not clear whether the trains were moved east to Denver by the C&S, or south to Leadville and handed over to the D&RG for shipment to Denver via Salida and the 3-rail track.
And then there is this interesting factoid: In 1925, the year the D&RG Salida-Leadville 3rd rail was taken up, the C&S decided that it had a surplus of narrow gauge coal cars. In September of 1925 the C&S sold 98 coal cars to the A.T. Herr Supply Co. (Herr salvaged the trucks for resale to logging lines in Idaho). This lot of cars likely included most of the 1897 and 1898 St Charles coal cars.
Coincidence?? So what had those 98 coal cars been doing for the past 5 years? Sitting idle on various weed choked sidings? Or, could they have been hauling Baldwin coal over Marshall Pass and through the Black Canon, an operation no longer possible after the 3rd rail was gone?
Again, lots of speculation, not much fact. But I think Pat could reasonably justify quite a few C&S coal cars on his Sn3 Marshall Pass layout.
Jim Courtney
Poulsbo, WA
Locked
