Denver to Como

[Chris Walker]

Mike is correct, fire hydrant, visible in this picture to the left.  I wonder if it was put in after the Hotel Fire.

From the Ted Kierscey Photo Collection  http://www.narrowgauge.org/index.html

A nice closeup view


https://www.ebay.com/itm/Colorado-Southern-5-VINTAGE-RAILROAD-PHOTO/123252587448?hash=item1cb26d3bb8%3Ag%3AplsAAOSwCMlbRTff&_pgn=2&_sacat=0&_nkw=++Colorado+%26+Southern+&_from=R40&rt=nc

[ComoDepot]

There is this pipe sticking out the ground, would this be part of the same system?

Now a hydrant needs pressure and a supply, the Water Tank is some way off and the water cistern (yet to find a photo) near the junction of 5th St and Pine was probably only a little further and neither would have been significantly higher. Would there need to be a pump?  

Was it common to have a water supply between the tracks, the photographed spot would have been behind and to the north of the Dispatchers office

[John Droste]

I always wondered about this pipe coming through the floor in the Freight room.
The pipe does not appear to be knurled at the top so it has not been bashed into the ground.
It is just near the dividing wall to the baggage room, which was actually the battery room. Ask for more information if you want to see that!
Also in the top left of the photo can be seen a patch of boards. That is one of the two patches in the floor directly below the patches in the roof.


So David, is there a direct line between this location and the other known or suspected pipe locations?
Include in that the spot where Mr Perschbacher was foraging around that little pit behind the freight room in the area where the outhouse was.
Consider the well location under the hotel too. If you get three in a row then you may be onto something.

But realistically then, there must have been some kind of reservoir up the hill to supply water. Even if it was pumped up, but that would not have been necessary.

[Robert McFarland]

This is the first time I have seen anything saying that the Lake House Hotel(or part of it) was used for a time as a station.Memorial p205 says DSP&P continued on P&AV grade south to Nathrop mid March and then west to Hortense by July1880

[John Droste]

Hijacked again!
Not surprised.

[ComoDepot]

There are no signs of any water supply in the Depot, there would be no need and how would they stop it freezing in Winter. All sorts of stuff accumulated in there over the years so I have been told, it was pretty cleared out when I came along.

There was an Outhouse near the Switchman's Shanty.

Now the Gilman/ Pacific has me scratching my head, the current Hotel I think I have a handle on. I found a few odd pipes buried behind what would have been the Pacific kitchen, not that I think they have anything to do with the kitchen, and they were not deep enough to be below the frost line.

Anybody who has ground penetrating radar is welcome to try it out in Como.

[Chris Walker]

John Droste wrote

Hijacked again!
Not surprised.

John,

the thread Title can be changed on Reply, but only for the reply and subsequent replies from there on, unless changed again.  If a previous post is replied to then that title will stand.    It is best practice to change the title if deviating from the immediate subject so as to make searches easier.  

I'm sure you can work that out.

[John Droste]

David,
Fill me in on the presumed Ice House please. Was there an early article that said there was an Ice House north side of the Depot or alongside?
 It is insane to think that that building behind the depot and Hotel was used to store Ice. There was no practical access to the building to do that.
I have pointed out the 2,173 sq ft oil loading platform in the BB&S book and no location given for it in Blazek`s work book.
I have pointed out that the original depot would ideally have been on that flat unused area of land south side of the water tank near the engine house. Could the Ice house then have been located on the other side of the water tank?

And also, you have often mentioned that you thought the engine house was in an odd location. Taking into consideration that the first depot may have actually been just below the town, at the bottom of Seventh Street and in-between the leads to the engine house in that case, would you still think that the engine house was in a peculiar position?

 Because little that I know about railroads, that all seems to make sense.

[Chris Walker]

Robert, references for you: pages 177 and 427 of Memorial Ed. Denver, South Park & Pacific.

[Chris Walker]

Mike,
there was a small Building about the size of a Handcar shed located opposite the Hotel and slightly along from the Dispatcher's Building visible in one of the Doctor's glass plate photos.

EDIT:   here on the left.



Park County Archives

[Jeff Young]

The ice house behind the depot was likely for the hotel, not reefer service.

The eating house at Sargent (on the D&RGW) had an ice house.  I guess I should say "has", as they're both still standing.

The eating house:




The ice house:



(Yes, the ice house looks like a privy, but the privy for the eating house was a two-door affair that was a bit larger.  Being right on the river it has been lost.)

[John Droste]

Hi Jeff,
The rooms for the hotel were listed under the hotel;
refrg room 6&1/2 x 7&1/8?  A bit hard to identify that last digit!

Cooling rm 4&1/8'? Maybe 4&1/2' x 7&3/4'

Would seem odd to me to be measuring feet by 1/8th increments. Some measurements are in thirds, 4 inches? Don't know why the measurements were not simply made in feet and inches.

I wonder the difference between a refrigerator room and a cooling room. One will be colder than the other, I guess.

However, The Ice House is listed entirely separately and not a part of any other building or attachment, like outhouses for instance. Not small, 16 feet x 32 feet. That is a serious size Ice house. One would expect it would be heavily used. At least, I do.

So maybe it is known. I at least do not know. Was the Ice from lake Como loaded and taken directly to Denver? Or was there a storage facility somewhere? Como maybe?

Gotta tell you Jeff, It is bloody nice to get a response to some of my questions for a change that is not loaded or instead just ignored.
I am trying to do something good and I have never got any respect for it. So I thank you.

 I wonder if the building behind the depot was a section house? Or for hotel staff?

This photo below by the way showing the back of the Gilman and DSP&P hotels is very good. If there is a path to the building thought to be an Ice House, I can1t see it. And there would have had to have been one if it was used for commercial purposes. If it served the hotels/ eventually the Pacific, it would be listed. Yes?
This photo shows also the shadow cast from the depot and also the shadow cast from the DSP&P hotel. There is no shadow where it was thought to have been a narrow connection between the two hotels. Discovering the 98&1/2 foot corridor on the second floor, which Must have been behind the bedrooms quashes that idea completely.
 NOBODY, NOBODY, is man enough to acknowledge ANYTHING at all, that I contribute.
Things that would never ever be understood, had I not came along.

I only came back here to point out the boxcar wall in the depot. I thought it important enough to do that. It is important if you want to know the history of the depot. To understand it.
 Instead, effed if I know why, every effort is made to hide, conceal and deny the true history of the building. Go figure!
 The big question to me is WHY? Who has the right to do that? Its like fraud or something! Why can people do that? WHY do they do that?

Unless somebody can show that I have gotten things wrong. The DRG station had to be moved after the Cherry Creek floods. It was moved along Wynkoop Street to near 19th Street. There it was the maps and evidence is there. But conditions were so bad there that the DRG started operating out of the Union Station even before it officially opened.
 And then the DRG depot became the property of the DSP&P. Probably through Gould.



Below, on the far right, is the building that sat next door to the DRG depot.


Below now is an 1874 drawing showing that same building not far from the corner of 19th street. And note that there is an empty block in between it and the building on the corner of 19th & Wynkoop.

And that is where the DRG station was positioned some years later, after the Cherry Creek flood. Don't get the DRG freight depot confused with the passenger station either. They were always seperate addresses.http://cdm16079.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15330coll22/id/88627

Below, a photo showing the location of the DRG station. Right in the northern cross hair. Used there for such a short time that it is not in the City directory. But it was there. Moved there. And then it was moved away. They did not destroy it. Do you think that they just would? Not you Jeff, I don't mean you. I am just paying out on everybody else. For being unbelievably, what they are.

[Robert McFarland]

Why would they use a D&RG building when there was a DSP&P station near the location of the Denver DSP&P roundhouse which happened to have been moved somewhere in 1881.According to a post of Davids in the DSP-P or DenverSouthPark Yahoo Group photo files the Como Depot was built in  four sections-couldn't that be the original 1879 depot plus whatever got added on whether moved in or new construction.

[Jimmy Blouch]

Jeff Young wrote

The ice house behind the depot was likely for the hotel, not reefer service.

The eating house at Sargent (on the D&RGW) had an ice house.  I guess I should say "has", as they're both still standing.

The eating house:




The ice house:



(Yes, the ice house looks like a privy, but the privy for the eating house was a two-door affair that was a bit larger.  Being right on the river it has been lost.)

Jeff Young wrote

The ice house behind the depot was likely for the hotel, not reefer service.

The eating house at Sargent (on the D&RGW) had an ice house.  I guess I should say "has", as they're both still standing.

The eating house:




The ice house:



(Yes, the ice house looks like a privy, but the privy for the eating house was a two-door affair that was a bit larger.  Being right on the river it has been lost.)

At one time there was an eating house at Sargent.  It was located trackside to the main line, near the depot.  It was gone early, I don't have the date at hand.
This particular structure was/is not the eating house. It was/is the section house.  A view of this structure shows up in Dorman's "Gunnison", captioned eating house.  However, many of his views have caption errors.
The other view in your post is most likely a privy.

Jimmy

[Jeff Young]

Hi Jimmy,

The original eating house burned in 1904 (along with the original depot):

The depot that we all know and love was moved to Sargent from Chester.

Cheers,

Jeff.

[John Droste]

Robert,
I will have to take you back to when I first joined the DSP yahoo group and I had no idea then, the gravity of what I was saying. In fact, I only did realise it after my last post here. Expressing my frustration in words answered my own question.

I can re explain the matter of how I discovered the link to the DRG depot point for point, more clearly than before.

What happened to the former depot, where it was, is just speculation. Theory. The Como depot, very different matter.

I will have to give a full account now. Not now but later in the week because I should be working now.
 The understanding has left me in turmoil, to be honest.

John

[Robert McFarland]

What happened to the Buena Vista Land Co. building ?It only shows up in early photos of the yard?IT would appear that it was replaced by the building that is now the BV Town Hall.Early yard pictures could be dated pre 1882 because the Town Hall has an 1882 date on it

[Chris Walker]

Indeed Robert, the Kiercsey photos are labeled 1881.  Since I wasn't in Buena Vista until 1982,  just what happened to that early building, I can't answer.

[Jimmy Blouch]

2 views of 1881 map for Buena Vista

Jimmy

[John Droste]

Jimmy,
There is not much I can say not having studied this area. But I do observe on your maps that structures are actually outlined to their particular shapes. And that the two depot structures are simple rectangles. I understand that the current building that was the BV depot is more than a simple rectangle.
When did that change?

John