Tennis anyone? Bailey's at MP 56.19

[Jim Courtney]

One of my favorite C&S stations is Baileys at MP 56.19 in Platte Canyon.  Baileys was a resort town, the C&S owned Kiowa lodge was just North of the little depot, behind the general store.

I was studying this McClure photo c1909-1910 on the DPL website the other night:


http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15330coll22/id/240/rec/1653

The Kiowa Lodge was to the right in the South Platte valley, just to the left of the rock outcropping under the seated man.  

Under maximal magnification, I found this scene:



The C&S depot is between the mainline and the river, at the top, recently repainted in revival grey and green; the pump house is just above the coal car, next to the river.  In the foreground is a short 2-3 car spur with stacked lumber, waiting to be loaded, probably hauled in by wagon from a small sawmill in the vicinity. Unfenced cattle graze nearby. Across the tracks is a full tennis court, enclosed by a high fence of netting, to prevent balls from being lost in the South Platte. The tennis court no doubt is a facility of the lodge.

I dare anyone to find a photo on the D&RG or RGS with a tennis court next to the mainline.

BTW the full view of the Baileys siding is shown below, the general store is at the right frame, bandstand in the center, outfit cars as sheds at the top right corner; no autos have yet arrived in this 1909-1910 photo, so the Conoco gasoline storage tank next to the siding is still in the future:

[Chris Walker]

 This is all so Deja Vu Jim,  a great subject.

Notice eitherside of the lumberyard spur there are dry creeks that seem to be giving the Sectionhands some shovel-practice after every cloudburst.  I also admire this little village nestled in the valley of the Platte, have done for most of my adult life since Digerness saw fit to publish the Mineral Belt volumes.

Loading Ties!


http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm/fullbrowser/collection/p15330coll22/id/243/rv/singleitem/rec/5


Train Time!  Hold your Horses, Mate.


http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm/fullbrowser/collection/p15330coll22/id/329/rv/singleitem/rec/7

and the Baileys General Store has also been a favourite of mine, in the likeness of the Fall River House and Empire Hotel.  
Ice Creams, Anyone?


http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm/fullbrowser/collection/p15330coll22/id/243/rv/singleitem/rec/5

[Tim Schreiner]

Great find Chris!! A tennis court would be a great detail to ad to a layout.

[Robert McFarland]

Don't forget the Gilbert&Bush ex-New York El car on the ground toward the far end of town.There's a close up of this car in one of the Mineral Belt books.

[Robert McFarland]

He rates an Anna Held Cigar!!!

[Jim Courtney]

Chris,

The general store still serves ice cream as of August, 2013, when I last visited.  I hope to return this August.

I first visited Baileys in 1957, when I was six, on a family vacation to escape the Texas summer heat.  It is family lore that my grandfather insisted that the water in the South Platte was flowing up hill in Baileys, when we stopped for a picnic lunch, in a little park by the South Platte.  But he only had one eye, and did like his beer.  We never let him drive.

Note in the photo of the coal car being loaded with ties, the joining of side sill to end beam.  This is one of the few Penninsular 30' coal cars I've seen where the tapered side sills have been rebuilt with straight side sills, notched to accept the end beam.

BTW, why was there a pump house at Baileys, just to the west of the depot?  There was never a water tank at Baileys.  Do you think it was used to pump water up to the Kiowa Lodge?

[Jim Courtney]

Here are two more McClure photographs from the same visit c1909:


A full frame view of Chris's enlargement, showing the whole town of Baileys, just as McClure saw it on that beautiful day. C&S number 9 and the Leadville Passenger must still be taking coal at Pine Grove, the passengers at the depot are waiting for its arrival.


A fashionable female patron of the Lodge, fishing in the South Platte, just across the river from the C&S depot.

[Chris Walker]

Jim Courtney wrote

BTW, why was there a pump house at Baileys, just to the west of the depot?  There was never a water tank at Baileys.  Do you think it was used to pump water up to the Kiowa Lodge?

Absolutely a pumphouse supplying the Lodge, I had snipped the pumphouse pipe from this scene into Jeff's thread about the JeffersonWatertank supplypipe.  http://c-sn3-discussion-forum.41377.n7.nabble.com/Jefferson-water-tank-feed-pipe-tp2328p2332.html  and I think it was mentioned in the Klinger book, Platte Canon Memories.


http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm/fullbrowser/collection/p15330coll22/id/243/rv/singleitem/rec/236

[Jim Courtney]

Yes Tim,

On a module the size of yours one could model a lumber/tie yard with spur, cattle grazing in a pasture, a passenger train chuffing west down the line and Teddy Roosevelt era tourists playing tennis!  Everyone would be astounded at the rustic realism.

[Tim Schreiner]

I don't know if I have quite that much room, but what could be done would make for a unique scene.

[Jim Courtney]

I've owned a postcard size contact print of this 1926 Ducca photo since the early 1970s.

I purchased an 8x10 copy of this photo on eBay to add to this thread:



Note the St Charles boxcar, 8045, just to the right of the pump house.  It has apparently been re-lettered in the 1925 "Button" scheme without being repainted first.  Mine props and ties were still being loaded at Baileys, just as they were in 1910.

The Bailey's General Store has also lost its false front façade, but the bandstand still stands, though overgrown by trees.

The pump house has lost its stack, perhaps its boiler.  Perhaps an electric pump is in use by 1926, to make sure the Kiowa lodge has adequate running water.