Sheridan to Waterton

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■ This is "Dutch Creek Trestle" at milepost 11.6.  It was listed by the Colorado & Southern and its predecessors as bridge #1023, and as of 1886 was listed as a pile trestle with abutments, 6 spans at 16 feet each for a total length of 96 feet, and being 18 feet high at the center and listed as being built in 1883.   In 1894, it is again listed as bridge #1023 but now 20 feet high at the center, of the same length, but being built in 1889.

–  Dutch Creek was very prone to "freshets" and bridge #1023 was damaged or entirely washed out by local floods on multiple occasions.   The original structure would have been built in about 1874, and other than the 1883 and 1889 replacements, I have no other records on how many times it was rebuilt.  In this interesting photo, there has once again been flooding, note the high water marks on the side of the embankment.   Just beyond the trestle, "Platte Canyon Road" paralleled the tracks south to Waterton.

–  By the time this John Maxwell photo was taken on 7 Jul 1941, a third rail had been added as far south as the Chatfield sugar beet load-out in 1939.   I do not know if bridge #1023 was widened to accommodate the third rail, or whether the bridge deck was already wide enough to accommodate the third rail and the very light standard gauge traffic of perhaps 2-3 gondolas of sugar beets at a time.

–   This interesting photo was taken near the end of narrow gauge operations with the inner rail being removed by 5 Dec 1942 and the stub down to Chatfield then becoming standard gauge only.

–   At this very late date in narrow gauge operations, this most likely (conjecture only) is a "turn" delivering boxcars to Nighthawk for feldspar loading, and gondolas to the silicated brickworks at Silica.  By the time of this photo, C&S #70 (Baldwin 2-8-0) had been converted to oil and would often be assigned to Nighthawk and Silica turns.  It would soon go to the White Pass & Yukon where it was scrapped in 1945.

– On a final note, John Maxwell and perhaps others "chased" this southbound narrow gauge freight south on 7 Jul 1941 and there are several photos in the series, all being the same engine and consist.