Keystone Depot?

[Keith Hayes]

Is this it?

[Jim Courtney]

Yes.


http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15330coll22/id/8770

Kindig photo.

The Keystone depot before it was converted to the tack room for the Keystone Resort Stables, just after abandonment in August, 1938.

The log structures to the right frame in your photo are original dwellings for folks who worked at the sawmill there, Swedes or Finns, I forget which.

The original DSP&P mainline was the paved road to the right of the building. The depot sat between the two legs of the wye; the tail of the wye was to the the left of the depot structure, in "Jack Straw Flats".

As I recall, one could walk the original South Park grade to the west, all the way to the Snake river trestle site. It was used as a riding trail and the horses hooves would sometimes unearth C&S relics, like spikes, etc. My then 4-year old son actually picked up a C&S freight car journal lid from the dirt in the trail.  Good eye for one so young!





The wye was probably removed in the early 1900s. By 1918, the track to the depot was in place, but no longer in service.

A very compact terminal for a branch line layout. Only a single stub switch need be built!

[snapped_bolt]

    OOOOH!!!

     So close... only picture here is of one side?

     My first building for the layout...it's the Keystone depot. So far, I have WALLS laid out, and two doors. No floor. No roof.
     I am having a little difficulty finding ANY drawings of this particular building! But if pressed, I suppose I can "fake" it.

     I went to Google Maps and got right down on the street in front of the building. The first thing I saw looked like the Keystone Police parked out front. Or should I say Keystone Cops?!?

     I also do not have a lot of information regarding the board and batten structures built by the DSP&P. Or DL&G. Or even Union Pacific, for that matter. But using a little photographic manipulation I can determine the locations of the windows and doors. Or at least get close enough. I have a feeling that the building did not receive extensive exterior renovation once it was decided to convert it to a tack shed.

     If anyone happens to be in the area this summer, It may be beneficial for some basic dimensions  to be taken along with a few pictures. While this location never did become a highlight for any railroad activities, it will figure rather large on my layout, and I can produce some dimensioned drawings that I can post to the group.

       Cheers!!!

          Stan

[John McCutcheon]

Stan

Contact the CRRM to see if they have plans or any type of sketch on this structure. I have received some information on structures that they had no plans on which is helpful on laying out structures.

[Keith Hayes]

Stan, I would typically direct you to the track folio for the plan dimensions, however they are posted above and of absolutely no help.

Sorry.

[Jimmy Blouch]

snapped_bolt wrote

OOOOH!!!

     So close... only picture here is of one side?

    Stan

Keystone depot October 12 2010

Jimmy

[snapped_bolt]

   Thank You, Mr. Blouch!

       We now have 3 sides of this building.
       Looks to me like there are 3 of the original windows in the views given; the two one the front side, and the one at the rear. The two at the front appear to be original installations. These three windows appear to be 9/9 double hung.

       We now have 3 out of 4 sides posted. The other side is shown fairly clear in the DPL X-10155 image. No need for any modern view.

       The "front" (track side) view is at an angle making it difficult to determine EXACTLY what may be there. I got a Google map street view that clearly shows one of the windows being 3 panes wide, which matches the width clearly shown on the rear.

        My best guess at these windows is Grandt 4032, surgically altered to become a 9/9 with close to a proper height and width.  With the views I have now, there are 4 identical windows to make.

        The long wall in the X-10155 image (left side) appears to have a doorway, however in the photo it seems a good height for Hobbits. And near it, or on it, appears to be a cage for some animal on display. I have no idea of what it could be. Since this image is post-abandonment, the building may have gotten some attention of some boys with some of their dad's tools, perhaps hoping to convert the building to some type of fort?

        Unfortunately just going to Google Maps has not revealed whether or not I am even looking at the same building. The mountains in the background are a poor match. Perhaps tree regrowth has obliterated the original view.

        Still trying to figure out which walls are shown in the X-10155; I have been figuring that the abandoned grade was being used as a road at this time, and the signs point to cabins about 3 miles from the old depot-but- UP the valley, or DOWN the valley? Folks could have been going either way.  Perhaps someone has a better angle on this!

        Cheers!

          Stan

[Jim Courtney]

In the Klingers' C&S Highline Memories . . ., there are two circa 1930 photos of Keystone.

This one shows the out of service depot in the right distance, with the disconnected mainline running just to the left (north) of the depot:

 


The photographer is pointing the camera east, up the Snake River, toward Arapaho Pass (left horizon) and Montezuma (right horizon). The wye branched out to the right (south) of the distant depot, and the depot sat within the wye.

Visible is the west end of the depot -- looks like two double hung windows to me.

FWIW, Poor in the Memorial Edition . . .  lists the depot dimensions as 20 x 30 feet.

The barns, cabins and the boarding house (with the model T parked in front), served the little community of Scandinavian loggers. The sawmill was out of frame, over the photographers left shoulder. As of my last visit in the mid 1980s, many of the buildings at left still stood, used as a nature school for the resort's young visitor's. Man, go visit a place like Keystone for a week and end up in school??!!

And yes, the tack room photographed above, is the former depot.





Don't forget to include a "hay stacker" for your module, visible to the right of the depot (in first photo), in "Jack Straw Flats". All those burros and mules, hauling freight up to the mines in the distance, well they got hungry!