Morrison Branch: CONOCO Dealer.

[Chris Walker]

In this 1920's to early 1930's view of Morrison,

the trackage layout has been reduced to what appears to be no more than a stub track.   Up past where the Depot used to be and near the bridge across Bear creek can be seen a couple of Tanks(along with a Tankcar).  The Conoco is confirmed in a later photograph after abandonment.  The Turntable pit is still visible left of the lumber piles.  

Also of interest is the Pacific Lumber: who would have thought that Morrison would become the "Pacific" destination in DSP&P


http://cdm16079.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/fullbrowser/collection/p15330coll22/id/10277/rv/singleitem

Apparently in the mid to late 30's, July, 1933 to be precise, info thanks to John Schapekahm (EDIT),  

John Schapekahm wrote

July 8, 1933. To: R. Rice, [et.al.], from Mitchell. Cloudburst above Morrison July 7th did considerable damage on the Morrison Branch. Two bridges were washed out at Morrison, and there were five cars behind the washed-out bridges: CONX 19; CONX 30, tank cars of gasoline; and C&S 8244,8156, and 8269, empty box cars. CONX 19 has truck standing on end of small bridge, trucks derailed, car standing upright. [Edwards, Daniel W., A Documentary History of the South Park Line Vol. 4 The Platte Canon District (2015)] (emphasis added)

Bear Creek did its thing resulting in this upset of Conx. 19.


http://cdm16079.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/fullbrowser/collection/p15330coll22/id/19898/rv/singleitem

[Jim Courtney]

Great photos, Chris.  New information for me!!

[Jim Courtney]

The repacked date reads "8-29-32"

[Chris Walker]

Jim, how long did a repack last in NA?

The DPL's photo date is 1938?    I'm hoping someone with some time to spare can search papers past for the dates that Morrison got flushed by Bear Creek.  Other DPL photos show another in 1941 but the tanks have gone even though the CONOCO signed building exists, I guess that with the demise of the Railroad the bulk dealer went as well, Fuel just trucked in the amounts needed.    

[Jim Courtney]

Jim, how long did a repack last in NA?

I dunno, Chris. Likely several years.  

If you're trying to narrow the date of the photograph and the opening date is "RPKD 8-32", the closing date would likely be when the car was repainted from silver with green "CONOCO" to the later black with white letters, as on your photo of CONX 8 on your recent blog post.

A guy named Bruce Blalock, an executive for CONOCO and an old acquaintance from Houston days, was able to access the company archives as to the records for the narrow gauge CONX tank cars.  He wrote an article in the early 1970s for the Gazette and chronicled the construction of the cars and paint schemes thoroughly.  The date of 1937-38 for silver --> black paint jobs seems to come to mind.  So the date of 1938 could be correct.

I'm stuck in the hospital for 24 hours, will go through my files tomorrow.

Jim

[Jim Courtney]

My memory isn't as good as I thought. The CONX Gazette article that I remembered was Nov-Dec 1980, by Robert Sloan, referencing information from Bruce Blalock.  

Evidently all of the company's paint and lettering specifications for the CONX cars, from original late 1920s lettering, to green-on-silver "CONOCO" and then to white-on-black "CONOCO" were shipped to Mexico with the CONX tank cars during WWII, when the cars were sold to the NdeM.

The article lists a repaint date for the cars from silver to black as "late 1930s".  The Thinfilm decal sets that I have show "Repaint" dated from 1937 to 1938.  The photos of CONX tank cars, painted black, in the NGP VIII,  show a "Painted-DEN date" from between "3-1937" on CONX 5 and CONX 35 to as late as "3-40" on CONX 8.
 
So, since CONX 19 is in silver in your Morrison photo, I would think the photo must date from mid 1932 to early 1937, possibly as late as 1940. From the rather pristine paint job, I would guess 1932-1935, for what it's worth.

Jim

[Chris Walker]

From what I can see in the enlargement the repacked date and the painted date are the same year at least.   Now the top photo with all the cars, anyone have a shot at that date should be easy with those cars?

[Chris Walker]

Apparently in this Jeffco Historical issue, https://historicjeffco.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/2014histjeffco35.pdf  the Flood is referenced to 2nd September 1938, no mention of the 1941 flood that DPL assigned to one of the pictures.  Check page 23 of above doc.
July, 1933 to be precise, info thanks to John Schapekahm (re-EDIT),

[Robert McFarland]

Notice the issue also has articles on the restoration of the Billy Westall monument and a paragraph about Buffalo store owner J.W.Green.Are there any more downloadable issues available?

[Chris Walker]

https://historicjeffco.wordpress.com/publications/jchc-magazine/historically-jeffco-online/

[Jim Courtney]

I'm a little slow sometimes.

Having restudied these photos today, I realized that freight traffic to Morrison lasted far longer than the mixed trains of the 1920s.

Going back to read John's excellent timeline of the Morrison branch (http://c-sng-discussion-forum.41377.n7.nabble.com/Train-Time-in-Morrison-td4090.html), he clearly lists the demise of the mixed trains to Morrison and subsequent PUC requirements of the C&S to provide freight service:

June 13, 1924. "Application No. 331; Statement of the PUC."
The C&S filed a petition with the Commission on May 12, 1924, asking that it be authorized to discontinue the operation of its regular tri-weekly mixed train service from Denver to Morrison. [After a recess at the hearing], the parties reached an agreement, which reads as follows:
"… That until further order of the PUC, the present regularly scheduled train service on the Morrison Branch be suspended, and the freight traffic on that branch be handled on the following minimum basis:
• Whenever there are five carloads of freight to be moved in either direction on a single round trip, the same shall be moved during any day on notice given by noon of the preceding day;
• Whenever there shall be a total of three cars to be moved from the coal mining property known as the Sharon mine, the same shall be moved during any day on notice given by noon of the preceding day, provided that the C&S shall not be called upon more than once in any one week to move a minimum of five cars on any one round trip." [Edwards]

John's timeline also fixes the likely date of the flood in Morrison that left the Conoco tank car stranded as July, 1933, better matching the reweigh dates of the tank car in the photo Chris posted:

The first of several Depression-era floods struck Morrison on July 7 and 8, 1933, at Idledale (née Starbuck), Morrison, and the canyon in between, playing out a recurring pattern for the area. Five died in the canyon during the rampage, and properties were heavily damaged, especially from Idledale (Starbuck) down through Morrison. After this flood, the Denver and South Park Railroad (built in 1873), running from Denver to Morrison, was abandoned after 60 faithful years of service. A number of bridges and a portion of the roadbed were washed out and never rebuilt. [White]

(they had a Starbucks even then!)

July 8, 1933. C&S Memo. A Cloudburst above Morrison July 7th did considerable damage on the Morrison Branch. Two bridges were washed out at Morrison, leaving five cars behind the washed-out bridges: CONX 19; CONX 30, and C&S box cars 8244, 8156, and 8269. CONX 19 has truck standing on end of small bridge, trucks derailed, car standing upright. (History Colorado Collection, formerly Colorado State Historical Society)



So, between abandonment of mixed train service in 1924 and complete abandonment of service in the fall of 1933, how was freight consigned to or from Morrison handled?

Were there round trips run as extras out of Denver?

Did Leadville freights stop at Sheridan Jct, with an engine making a run down to Morrison and back (as Mike describes operations to Dillon from Dickey)?

John cites a C&S memo that, once very 7-10 days, two cars of gasoline were delivered to the Conoco distributor in Morrison, as in the photos above.  Any other photos of freight operations to Morrison after the demise of the mixed trains?

[Chris Walker]

FWIW Jim,  I am at a loss to explain why my edit to the OP  had not been updated, since the info was passed to DPL either by John, or myself, resulting in the DPL changing their date of (1938?) to that of July, 1933 see the info http://cdm16079.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15330coll22/id/19898
Note that the DPL Comments section does not exist anymore since the continued haranguing of the DPL by Mr Droste so when that correction was done, does not now have any reference date., I'm thinking that this was all done back around the end of October 2015.
I have changed my OP to reflect the '33 date.  

[Jim Courtney]

The other interesting tidbit from the C&S memo of the 1933 flood, is documentation that Conoco tank car CONX 30 was trapped in Morrison. This is the first written record that I've seen demonstrating this car commonly ran on the C&S.

Up to now I thought that the only big Conoco tank car with tall dome, to run on the C&S, was sister car CONX 35:


Lad Arend photo, 1930s.