Mac Poor photo at Climax

[Todd Hackett]

I bought this a while ago on eBay but just got up to scanning it. It came as the original 5x7 negative and a 4x6 print. I scanned the print on a flatbed scanner and used a light table and camera to digitize the negative (my old flatbed scanner that can scan negatives died a while ago). The negative provided a little more detail than the print, but the best thing about the original negative is that it wasn't cropped. The print was pretty much full frame, but didn't include the slice of a boxcar at the right, and more importantly didn't include the writing on the top. The negative included a space to write a description, and it has some details. They include the month, year, and photographer. I assume Mac poor wrote this himself, but this is the only time I've seen him use his full name of Meredith Clarence Poor. All of the photo prints I have that he made himself are stamped M. C. Poor, and I've only seen him go by M. C. or Mac.

Here's the full photo from the negative:


Close-up of the text:


The back of a typical M. C. Poor print:

[Kurt Maechner]

Great photo, Todd. Thanks for posting it. What do you think the engine is hauling? Looks like a jumble of drawers or furniture.
Kurt

[Mike Trent]

Probably scrap metal.

[Mike Trent]

Thanks, Todd. My Dad was known as M.C. Trent, which had been formed early to differentiate him from his Father, M.H. Trent. When Dad became involved in the Rocky Mtn RR Club in the 50's, he became friends with Mac Poor, and learned as much as he possibly could from him.

Among things that he learned from Poor, was to emulate his attention to details on the back of each photo. As an example, Dad not only included the location and subject of each photo, but also often the weather, time of day, type of film, the camera he used, and often names of the crew. This can all be attributed to the great M.C. Poor. As well as Ed Hailey, Dick Kindig, and others. Here is a photo of Dad's taken at ARA, East of Boulder, where the wye was located.  Also are his notes on the rear of the 8x10, and his typwritten note card that accompanys the photo in his album. C&Ssg!







This is how we have come to be able to study and appreciate the great masters who have shared their passion and determination to preserve history.  Thanks for posting the great stuff from Mac Poor, Todd. That photo itself is a treasure.

[Todd Hackett]

Kurt Maechner wrote

...What do you think the engine is hauling? Looks like a jumble of drawers or furniture...

I don't think it's furniture. Mike's probably correct about it just being scrap metal.

[Chris Walker]

Those look like either Precipitation boxes/vats, or maybe Feeder boxes to me; certainly not scrap.

[Mike Trent]

Fair enough. Sounds good to me.

[Keith Hayes]

Note the Fireman is looking to the rear, and the train is at what appears to me to be the east leg of the wye.

Here is my story: the train just arrived at Climax. The first car is the coal with the bins, and it gets placed first. The car is cut, and the loco moves past the east switch and backs up the east leg of the wye past Mac, who snaps a photo as the car is en route to being spotted.

Make sense?

[Chris Walker]

I thought this image was familiar: pg221 The Mineral Belt V-II.

Keith Hayes wrote

Make sense?

Must be just a switching move: surely that car didn't make it over the road loaded like that?

[Todd Hackett]

Here's another view at Climax with #76 pulling a narrow gauge freight train (but with passengers on the last two cars). The information on the back says this was "...the last narrow gauge train to be operated by the Burlington Lines" and talks about the standard gauge rails having been installed outside of the narrow gauge ones, but on closer inspection in front of #76 it looks like its on a turnout rather than inside standard gauge track. The standard gauge has obviously been completed to where the standard gauge cars are in the background, but it looks like they still have some work to do.

[Matt Hutson]

Hi Todd,
That's actually Birdseye Gulch. I drove the road below the curved fill just a few months ago.

Cheers,
Matt

[Keith Hayes]

Todd, what would the switch be for? The fill does not appear wider towards the rear of the train, and in front of the train, there is no current sign of a wider roadbed that would suggest a former siding. Signs of the spur in the rear are still visible. I don't recall any sidings on this portion of the highline between the D&RG crossing and Fremont Pass, but I may be mistaken.

I have always thought that the rails were laid off center for some reason.

Note the brakie riding the roof about seven cars back! I am guessing that these are all SUF cars, as that was what was embargoed at Leadville at the end of operations. Do the boxes all have 13-rib roofs, or is there a wood roof in there?

Was Birdseye Tank uphill or downhill from this location?

[Chris Walker]

Retracted:  Wrong this time.


Todd,

there are numerous fastenings visible along the paired rails to maintain the gauge and rail separation in the four rail track on that sharp of a curve; it does indeed resemble part of a switch.  This trackage appears in several companion Otto Roach images of the C&S 76 there in the Mineral Belt II, that allows better understanding of the geometry.

While I'm "talking" to Todd.
Your Inspection car could have been made by Sheffield, Kalamazoo, or Handlan-Buck, Buda and others.  Note there is a sprocket on the front axle that may have been pedalled under the front seat.

[Todd Hackett]

Keith Hayes wrote

...what would the switch be for? ...I have always thought that the rails were laid off center for some reason...

The locomotive doesn't appear to be centered over the middle two rails - more like centered between the second from left and far right. Also, the two rails on the right seem to be getting closer together toward the front with the "gauge" between the inner rails getting smaller. I was thinking this might be a derail. This other view of #76, which is also identified on the back as being the last train, shows the narrow gauge rails pretty well centered between the standard gauge without any ties between standard gauge and narrow gauge rails. It also looks like teh standard gauge are heavier, while the photo at the top of this thread seem to show the far right and second from left to be the heavier ones, which may makes sense for a derail (the derail tracks being lighter), but I don't know that derail tracks would extend that far or be in a curve. It's possible that they shifted the relative location and that the change in gauge is an illusion, but it doesn't look right to me.

[Todd Hackett]

Chris Walker wrote

...Your Inspection car could have been made by Sheffield, Kalamazoo, or Handlan-Buck, Buda and others.  Note there is a sprocket on the front axle that may have been pedalled under the front seat.

I see what looks like some rope wrapped around the front axle, but I'm not sure I see a sprocket. It definitely doesn't look home-built.



And while we're getting far off topic, I'm heading down your way tomorrow - actually passing over you and heading even farther south. Stewart Island and Fiordland. That means I won't have easy access to my photos for a little while.

[Matt Hutson]

Hi guys,
This was taken today at roughly the same location as Todd's post on 11/13 of Birdseye Gulch:


Cheers,
Matt

[Kurt Maechner]

It's neat to see that spot today. Thanks for the photo.
How late in the year does the LC&S run?
Kurt

[Matt Hutson]

Hi Kurt,
Currently they are running three trains a day, Friday - Saturday - Sunday. They plan to run trains until the first week of April.

A few more from yesterday. Eastbound toward Denver:


The French Gulch tank:


At the Buckeye siding:


The narrow gauge roots of curvature and grades are pretty obvious here:


Cheers,
Matt

[Kurt Maechner]

Thanks, Matt,
I love those shots of the ROW on a shelf in the mountainside.