South Platte

[John McCutcheon]

Can anyone tell me what type of ore was loaded out of South Platte  and how it was shipped. I am assuming it was loaded of the spur near the hotel and was it loaded loose or in bags.

[South Park]

  Feldspar.  Unsure of how it was shipped, but it kept rail
operations to South Plate past official abandonment.

[Robert McFarland]

Formerly there was a posting on the RAILWAY ENGINEERING website called "Revenue Producers in Towns Serviced by the DSP&P" by Lee Rainey,but for some reason I cannot access it.

[Jeff Young]

The feldspar coming out of Silica was shipped in coal cars.  Presumably the South Platte ore was from a similar formation and shipped in a similar manner, but I have no data on that.

[South Park]

  Late photos show trains backing to South Platte, and I do
not remember anything but boxcars in the consists .....

[Southpark]

About 2005 in one of the interviews I had with John Green to get info for our book, C&S Platte Canon Memories & Then Some, the question was asked about feldspar that was loaded at Buffalo.  John said that the railroad used "clean" box cars to load the feldspar.  This would have been true for loadings at South Platte as well.  For those who do not know, the Buffalo store is still in the Green family.  John was a wealth of knowledge of the Buffalo to South Platte area.
You will note that in photos taken in the latter years by Kindig, Perry, Maxwell, Thode, etc that there were many box cars in the consists.
Also of note is that Buffalo is a railroad name but the area name is Buffalo Creek.
Tom Klinger

[Norm Acker]

In this early view of South Platte, it appears there is a loading platform of sorts near the hotel on the spur with a large number of white--perhaps cloth or canvas--bags which I assume to be feldspar from the numerous mines in the area which are accessible from the Colorado Trail which passes just south of the old townsite. I imagine wagons and then later trucks were used to bring the feldspar down to town for loading.
South Platte view, 1900s

At least that's my guess, and this is how I plan on modeling the loading area in my circa 1936 time frame.

[John McCutcheon]

I have never seen this view of a loading platform before or the shed/warehouse next to the platform. I know they also send flourspar out from Sapinero on the D&RGW.

[Robert McFarland]

What spur?What loading platform?

[Chris Walker]

In the early days of this great forum I used that photo in a quiz, http://c-sng-discussion-forum.254.s1.nabble.com/Sharp-Eyed-Persons-Quiz-Number-2-td729.html  EDIT:Link corrected to the 2nd Incarnation of here.

bit of a failure though.....

And as to the discussion, those to me look like a row of stacked Ties or mine props.   A CRRM photo on pg54 of Klinger's Platte Canon Memories shows a Coalcar loaded with poles/props on the short S.P. Hotel spur.  The warehouse is over on the far side of the water.

[Robert McFarland]

Looks like a neighbor's farm and outbuildings-but no siding or loading facilities.

[Jeff Young]

I’d lean toward mine props as well.  Bit hard to make out, though.