Freight Cars at Baileys, 1926

[Jim Courtney]

Back in 1972, I had applied to the University of Colorado Medical School for admission in the fall of 1973.  In early January of 1973, at the end of the Christmas/New Year's break, I flew to Denver for the obligatory interviews. The day of  interviews did not go well (I later received a letter of condolence that I would not be attending U. Colorado Medical School that fall). To lift my spirits the following morning, I convinced the friend I was staying with to loan me his little orange Datsun station wagon for the day; I made my first pilgrimage up Clear Creek to Silver Plume and back.

I visited the Colorado Railroad Museum that afternoon, and with what little spare money I had, I purchased the first C&S photographs for my collection. They were postcard contact prints, attributed to Frank Ducca of Littleton, Colorado. Later, on many occasions, I had the opportunity to examine the prints with an operating room surgical dissecting microscope and was amazed at how much detail was hiding in the silver grains of the little postcard prints.

Last night, I was going through my collection of plans and found two of these little prints, long misplaced. I decided to see if the same detail could be teased out of the images if scanned under high resolution (1200 dbi). The first two images are full frame.







I had posted a low resolution rather crappy image of the latter photo here in the past, when Jeff was looking for information on the 1902 coal cars. With further enlargement, a lot more detail is available:




The little general store has lost its false front and acquired 5 little dormers since we last saw it in the McClure images from c1910. http://c-sn3-discussion-forum.41377.n7.nabble.com/Tennis-anyone-Bailey-s-at-MP-56-19-td2622.html#a3171.  There are also Model Tees instead of horse drawn carriages, with a gas pump to serve them.




The pump house to the west of the depot has lost its stack and presumably its boiler.  An odd storage tank stands by the South Platte to the west. The bandstand is still in place though--wonder if they still have concerts?

Further enlargement of just the freight cars on the siding shows quite a bit of detail, but not as much a I remember when staring through the microscope:




Steel underframe boxcar 8300 and 1908 boxcar 8120 (8129?) still in the block lettering scheme and two 1902 coal cars to the right, loaded with mine props.




The two 1902 coal cars (4387 and 4265) both show faint residuals of "The Colorado Road" box herald between the center stakes, but both are pretty beat up and weathered from hauling coal and mine props.




Two of the oldest cars on the C&S roster: St Charles boxcar 8045 and St Charles coal car of no discernable number, both built in late 1899. Notice that the coal car still has the original four individual corner irons at the ends.

This Sanborn photo taken in the early 1930s, from about the same spot as the first photo above, shows more modern vehicles at the store, but the siding is empty:



Park County Local History Archives

[Jeff Young]

Outstanding!

[Jim Courtney]

A further enlargement of the two boxcars:




This 1929 photo from the Mineral Belt II, page 59, shows the west end of Baileys siding, with more mine props. or perhaps ties, being loaded in coal cars:


Colorado & Southern Railway photo, Richard Ronzio collection


The little kingpost bridge over the South Platte at the distant right frame is at the left frame of the above Ducca photographs. The Conoco gasoline storage tank is along the siding to the left. Note the three outfit cars on the ground next to the siding as it curves to the west switch of the main.

In the distance, I believe, is the 1929 Denver Water Board inspection special, spotted opposite the depot beyond some coal cars, on the siding to clear the main. If so, later in the day the little passenger special will take water at Selkirk tank in the photo that Don recently posted.

Mine props were not the only timber commodity shipped from Baileys.  This undated photo shows a lot of ties stacked for loading:


Park County Local History Archives.


The road to Fairplay, later US 285, crossed the C&S tracks, then immediately crossed the South Platte on its way up the canon to Glenn Isle (next), eventually to Kenosha and Como:


Park County Local History Archives.


A decade later, Otto Perry would stand on this bridge to photograph the last eastbound freight on the South Park Division:


Otto Perry photograph, April, 1937.

Today, you cross a bridge near the same spot to reach the Baileys Post Office.

[Robert McFarland]

Jim,the real hero(and the focus) of the MB photo is the Gilbert and Bush "el" passenger car body on the ground.

[Jim Courtney]

Robert, being a true connoisseur of the early DSP&P rolling stock, is referring to DSP&P coaches 11-15 and second coach number 2.

In 1880 the Leadville boom was in full swing and both the South Park and the D&RG were building toward Buena Vista and eventually to Leadville itself via the Joint Line.  The South Park found itself very short of equipment, both freight and passenger.  So, the little Colorado railroad bought six light weight commuter coaches that had been built by Gilbert & Bush for the New York Elevated Railway. The cars were between 40-41 feet over the platforms, and 35-36 feet over the end sills.

At the time of the UP renumbering of 1885, the six cars had become outfit cars 50-54 and coach 55. By the 1889 DL&G inventory all had disappeared from the roster, likely scrapped or demoted to lineside sheds or out buildings.  One of the cars likely was set out at Baileys as a small section house or bunk house, along with some older DSP&P freight cars used as tool sheds.

The cars probably looked like this (all three photos are from Hayes Hendrick's fabulous Passenger car website) when in early service in Manhattan:








A complete discussion of these odd cars can be found at Hayes Hendrick's site: http://www.midcontinent.org/rollingstock/CandS/dsp-passenger/coach_11-15a.htm  It is a fascinating read and includes drawings of how these cars may have appeared.


Early McClure photographs show the outfit cars at Baileys as early as 1908-1910:

http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15330coll22/id/240/rec/1653





Looks like someone has a fire going in the stove in the nearest outfit car shed.  And it looks like the poor section men had to climb uphill to visit the privy.

Aren't these threads amazing when they take a life of there own? We start out in a small Colorado town along the banks of the South Platte and end up taking a trip to Manhattan to ride the "El"!!

[ComoDepot]

Just a comment about the road from Bailey south in the Railroad era, Hwy 8 crossed over the railroad and river and looped south before coming out by Shawnee, drove it once. To get to Glen Isle etc you dropped down.

I remember speaking to George Champion's daughter who remembered driving up it before what is now CDOT took over the railroad grade. Seems that it took a long time for US 285 to supplant Hwy 8 in common usage.

It took many years to change the route which also included bypassing Como, still have not found out when that happened, she could not remember.