Floyd Hill - 1870s

[Todd Hackett]

This showed up on eBay recently. The note on the back identifies it as Floyd Hill saying it's the end of track, which dates it to 1873 to 1877. Using the ICC maps, I think I found the location of the photo from Google Maps. I think it was taken from the hillside to the right of the Google Street View photo on the right. The spot may have been excavated, so it might not be possible to match it exactly.

eBay Listing (pick "See original listing" to right of title)

[South Park]

 " .... so it might not be possible to match it exactly. "

  The issue I see with matching it even closely is our society's penchant
for ripping out everything old and cool and replacing it with plastic Costco
yard fixtures and vinyl fencing.

  Where are the rough hewn structures, early steam locomotives, hand-made
everything ?  More directly, were has the collective attitude gone that this is
how things are supposed to be ?  

  Great photo to remind us all how badly we've crapped in our own punchbowl.

[John Greenly]

Great photo!  I'm trying to relate this to these two:

http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm/fullbrowser/collection/p15330coll22/id/6370/rv/singleitem/rec/19

and,  looking in the opposite direction (I think):

http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm/fullbrowser/collection/p15330coll22/id/6369/rv/singleitem/rec/18

(I'm sorry, I haven't figured out yet how to post the DPL photo images here properly)

Those two photos have date noted as 1872-1875.  There appear to be quite a few more buildings in this one from Ebay, so the settlement must have grown during the '73 - '77 period.  Can somebody tell me what is just to the left of the two boxcars with open doors in this photo? Looks like a loading platform of some sort with ?? on it.  

John

[Todd Hackett]

John Greenly wrote

...I'm sorry, I haven't figured out yet how to post the DPL photo images here properly...

Here are those two photos. The road bridge across Clear Creek definitely matches the one in the eBay photo.

[Chris Walker]

http://c-sng-discussion-forum.254.s1.nabble.com/Floyd-Hill-The-Early-Years-td2708.html
Which I did after putting up this quiz on the NGDF  http://ngdiscussion.net/phorum/read.php?1,291875,291875#msg-291875

[ComoDepot]

Not sure people have changed that much, I think what has is the ability to destroy and generate trash.

There were it seems two dumps in Como and of course there is still a lot of rusty metal in the ground. The most obvious stuff that does not degrade is broken crockery, now there are many more options.

[Robert McFarland]

It would appear that  a lot of people in Colorado NG railroad towns in the 1800s just threw it in a pile near the back door.

[Todd Hackett]

John Greenly wrote

...Can somebody tell me what is just to the left of the two boxcars with open doors in this photo? Looks like a loading platform of some sort with ?? on it,..

Here's a better close-up. It looks like some barrels and other misc. freight. This shows at least two loading docks at this time. I expect that a lot of cargo was shipped here from Golden and transferred to wagons while this was end-of-track. It looks like there was a wye here (two sides in foreground, flatcar and boxcar in background on the third side). Has anyone seen a reference to a wye here in the early years?

[Robert McFarland]

Looks like one of the covered cars(lime?)in the back.I believe the track they are on is connected to the track with two other freight cars immediately behind the passenger train.Because of all the junk and buildings where the wye switch ought to be I don't believe there is one there.

[Robert McFarland]

Judging from the junk found in Colorado ghost town sites  a lot of folks really liked  oysters.

[South Park]

 Imagine what it would take to get oysters to the Colorado Rockies in the 1870's
before they went bad.  We take a lot for granted today.

[Robert McFarland]

They came in cans.

[Dave Eggleston]

Coming to this thread while digging for any info on Floyd Hill back in CC/UPDG days. The picture that sold on ebay looked very familiar. In fact, check out the photo on 296 of Abbott's 2007 Colorado Central book. Here's the enlargement on page 297:



If I hadn't looked I would've mistakenly thought they were the same image. But in fact they are two images of the same place within a short time on one day.

In the Abbott book's version, there is a boxcar hidden between the buildings in the upper left corner (note that its CCRR lettering appears to be to the right of the side door), and three boxcars at the loading dock spur (all with lettering to the left of the door). The train has arrived, with baggage car behind the loco and a passenger car.

In the auction picture, the hidden boxcar is not there, there are only two boxcars at the dock...but now there is one in front of the lime car at upper right (lettering to the left of the door), and another at what appears to be a warehouse just past the station (lettering not visible), with the lime car moved slightly right from its previous location. The nearest boxcar at the dock may have lettering to the right of the door. The engine has been turned. The passenger cars have not (stacks are still on the same side) but the baggage car has been put in front of the passenger car for proper orientation.

The auction picture represents the scene after quite a bit of switching. Interestingly, the boxcar at the station still sits there and there is still a man sitting on top of it as in the first photo. Two switch stands are visible, white harp styles, one to the right of the yard throat switch, the other to the left of the engine's pilot in the auction photo, controlling the track to the station.

This leads to questions:
1. All this activity required a passing siding. Where was it? I just can't see any evidence in these pictures.
2. There is the ever so minor hint of a possible track on the creekside of the station. Wheel tracks from a wagon?
3. How was the engine turned? There is a comment earlier in this thread above about a wye, but fitting one in the land available, with the buildings as sited, would be near impossible. Could there be a wye off camera to the right, just beyond the station? Or a...turntable?