Dear Mallory

[John Droste]

Dear Mallory,
your publisher has mentioned that you are doing a book on the early years of the DRG. I am pleased to read this as I know that you have a far greater understanding of the history of the D&RG and DSP&P RR`s than I and therefore I no longer need to continue with my program, thwarted as it was.
 I have a Pictorial guide to the DSP&P signed by all three, Kindig, Haley & Poor, in first class condition. I treasure the book greatly. I would love to have an autographed copy of your new book signed by you for my keeping. I would be further grateful if your offsider Chris could also sign the book. Chris Lane I am thinking, not Chris Walker, lol.
 Mallory,
 I want to make this our last post, my spirit guide and I, unless I am insane and it is only me after all, lol. I just want to show you some things and you will be aware of most things but perhaps not all, and you can lead on from there.

 I will start with the Yardmasters hut from the Como depot. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the floor of the Yardmasters hut looks like it was made from excess floor bearers from the office part of the building but assembled then with end bearers on the ends, making the floor into a frame, same as was done between the freight room and the original depot. And so it leaves the question, what was then used to make the actual yardmasters hut? Because I am confident that it also has been recycled.
 The two drawings that I attach below show that the Yardmasters hut was made from 4" cladding, not 3" like the remainder of the building although now obviously, it was there from the beginning.




Looking at the dimensions of the Yardmasters hut Mallory, with the two windows in the end walls, it makes me wonder if these dimensions relate to dimensions of an early work car or caboose and the ends in same were converted to windows from door entrances which they would have been before hand.
 With the Yardmaster no doubt having to be on hand at all times of the night just like the Dispatcher in his own sleeping quarters, he no doubt would have had access to the telegraph system to receive orders and that would be the reason for the ceramic insulators above his quarters on the bracing under the peak of the roof. You would have to be looking for it to notice!


I think the original vestibule outside the waiting room/ticket room was also a recycled caboose. Comparing the measurements to the end walls of the Yardmasters hut and considering that the end walls of the yardmasters hut would have been assembled inside the side walls, the measurement look pretty spot on!

Here is a picture of the wall that shows the profile of what would be the original caboose in white when the wall was painted red. I like the little curved bit on the left that shows the overhang the caboose roofs had. It is obvious that the immediate wall above also missed a coat of paint part way up the window when the troublesome round roof was altered to a flat roof. President of the DSP&P HS assured me that the vestibule was not a caboose and my guess is that another building was replaced over the concrete base of the original placement.


 But Mallory, the reason that I am addressing you now, looking into where the depot came from for it would be interesting to know.
 As you know Jay Gould was under instruction from his New York financiers to do what ever had to be done to reach Leadville as soon as possible. Your country was just beginning to recover from a devastating civil war, still is recovering today, but the resources from Leadville it was understood were needed to get the country moving again. Gould, like me it would seem (lol) had few scruples, railroads were a tool to him like a hammer & chisel are to me. He purchased and took over all the parochial railroads in the area in order to achieve the orders from his bankers. He was experienced and good at this. One such railroad that he commandeered was the H&TC, encompassing it into the bigger scheme of things.


Funnily enough the flag of the H&TC is very similar to the colour of the unpainted exterior wall of the oil room that I talked about previously. Anyway, the H&TC was the only railroad to have a star in a circle in its flag, I checked. Here below is a photo of the corbels of the depot ticket window which has the same star in circle motif, supported by a vine or branches. Something others can look into but not me. This style of work may be called folk art and may be late for the 1880`s already.


 So then, for many of the years that operations moved around for the D&RG before the opening of the Grande Union Station, nowhere in the City directories was the location noted at the location on this map. Often recorded on the South West corner but never here, on the North West corner of 19th & Wynkoop Streets.

 Here is a map not showing any buildings in the location but a track crosses Wynkoop St in front of where the D&RG depot is recorded to be. Standard gauge track it was but that does not matter because the narrow gauge went past here and on to the other western D&RG station stop, (Corner 6th & Larrimer?) and I am assuming that the D&RG was not the only railroad to be using this facility before the Union was completed.
 Here is a photo of the area

The building or buildings behind the telegraph pole are the old D&RG depot or depots on the South West corner before operations were moved to the North West corner, which would place it next to the building on the far right. The following link,http://cdm16079.contentdm.oclc.org/
contains a drawing of that building, located not far from 19th St on the North West side. There is some empty space between the corner buildings and the building in the drawing and above photo. Compare the building on the right in the above photo to the back of the Como Depot office below

Position of the window, pitch of the roof, distance the roof extends out over the walls!
Here are four Henry Jackson photos from the DLP. It is important to recognise that all the photos were taken on the same day. This can be done by looking at the Union station grounds and by people gathered in the railroad yards. One of the four images shows the D&RG station on the North West corner of 19th & Wynkoop Sts behind the Ben Delaney bar on the corner. That would place the building that looks like the back of the Como depot office behind the D&RG station building, out of site.
http://cdm16079.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15330coll22/id/88627


http://cdm16079.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15330coll22/id/84036


http://cdm16079.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15330coll22/id/84035


http://cdm16079.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15330coll22/id/88640
This building looks shorter than the Como depot however with the section of office building floor that turned up between the freight room and original depot, that would make sense.
 Once again, a close up of the controversial TOB on the D&RG depot that would coincide with the row of holes found in the Como depot. And why not? It is not as if the the TOB had not been invented and in use, in parts of the country.http://ngdiscussion.net/phorum/file.php?1,file=32133

So that is how I make the connection. Kenton Forrest in his book Denver`s Railroads described the D&RG station as being unusual in that it stood deeper than it was wide to the track. That was my clue. The depot on the South West corner was not like that. I understood that the Como depot had been reconstructed from various buildings and from observing all the patches in the walls, in part, numerous times. On the other hand, the D&RG depot/station it seems only served a matter of months before the freight depot reopened between 11th and12fth streets and passenger service resumed at same address, from the CC depot or in advanced operations from the Union Station.

 Mallory, there are a few other matters that I would like you to delve into, please. We know and understand that Gould had great if not full control of the D&RG, DSP&P &CC RR`s at this  time. We know that he forced the DSP and the D&RG RR`s to work together in building a line to Leadville, towards Buena Vista if I am not mistaken. And it is not known who reached BV first, the D&RG or the DSP&P, but if they were forced into working together, quite likely they reached BV at the same time on the same line. I mention this because as far as I know, Buena Vista would have been reached around the same time the Union Station opened for business. And within weeks of the tower on the Union Station being completed as shown in the Jackson photos above, the Colorado Central depot was dismantled to make way for extra lines to go through. So if the D&RG station was also dismantled to be taken to Como when the Union opened then the CC would have been dismantled same time. I mention this because looking at the restoration photos of the BV depot in the DSP&P HS website, it is very very clear to me that the BV depot is also reconstructed from more than one building. Maybe it had later additions, does`nt matter. What matters is perhaps the point that I am trying to make here. In the north wall of the Como depot which we now understand fully, was constructed at the same time as the rest of the depot. And it has a section of wall that matches a portion of the BV depot. I will attach a photo again of that potion of wall in question.

The glazing bar arrangement matches the BV depot windows as well as the architraves and mouldings. I do wonder if this section of wall came from the same building that was used to construct the first portion of the BV depot. And that they were the CC depot. Timeline seems to fit and if Gould controlled all, why not?

 There is one last thing that has made me ponder over. In the Jackson photo of the D&RG station there is a stone works beyond and I think that there are DSP&P cars parked along the stone works. I would have to imagine that this stone works supplied stone for the construction of the Union Station. I remember seeing a cornerstone in the Alpine engine roundhouse, not far off the ground level. The stone was cut stone and it looked like it could have been from a broken window sill. I do wonder if the DSP&P were taking discarded stone away from the stoneworks to add to the construction materials used in the Alpine engine house. The anomaly of finding a cut stone so low in the engine house construction could perhaps be explained this way.

 Good luck with your new book Mallory. I hope Chris will contact me to sell me a copy when it is released. I hope that what I have discussed here gives you foundation to do what you do. Give thought to what I have been shown myself, by my guide. Unless of coarse, I am crazy.
Wow, I hope I am finished now. Go home spirit guide, get off my couch!

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