The Best Preserved Stretches of C&S ROW

[Daniel Frauenhoff]

Jim, it seems that once again I have left out a relevant image. I did in fact attempt to capture a 'then and now' view matching the Denver Water Board survey photograph; the amount of trees that have grown back is amazing! I couldn't get the view to match exactly and was only just able to get one of the Crosson's structures to poke through the trees. Nonetheless it will hopefully help answer your question.



I have an arrow pointing to the visible building and have circled the location of the bridge, it is only just discernable through the trees on max zoom. It would appear to be the same bridge, or at least the same location; who knows how many times that thing has been washed out.

I think there is a good chance that at least one of the cabins from the water board photograph is the same as in Alex's pictures; the windows on the side are quite distinctive and seem to match.

Daniel

[Jim Courtney]

Chris,

No argument that the top flashing around the filial was metal (pressed down over the battens?).  But the two tanks above seem to me to have had wooden battens.

I agree, the Idaho Springs tank from the 1939 Valuation Survey does appear to be metal throughout, as does the 1931 image from the Ted Kierscey collection: http://www.narrowgauge.org/images/tkcok/m00162.jpg

And the Smith Hill tank seems to have metal panels throughout as well -- each panel has three ridges, with every 3rd ridge overlapping to form the seam:


1939 Valuation Survey photo, 97-35.36, in Abbott, et al., The Colorado Central Railroad, page 176.


It looks like a panel one might buy at Home Depot (do they have those in New Zealand?). Funny, until now I've never noticed this!

What are your thoughts about flat roof vs radial roofed tanks? Early images of Forks, as late as the 1890s show a peaked radial roof on the tank.  Were flat roofs just replacements to burned or ageing peaked roofs?

Good going, Jeff.  Another thread derailed by a simple question, leading to an interesting discussion.

Jim

[Jim Courtney]

Yes, Daniel, the rock outcroppings on the distant ridge at the right, and the near background at the left frame also seem to match.

Perhaps you or Alex, on your next trip to Crossons, could backpack in a small chain saw. A bit of preventive forestry, perhaps?? Wouldn't want a forest fire to consume those historic cabins, now would we!

[Jim Courtney]

Daniel and Alex,

What is the nature of the rock outcroppings and soil from Crossons and in to Estabrook canon?

I'm assuming is the same pink to gray granite so common to the area around Riverview, Buffalo and Pine.  But some of the photos suggest a sedimentary sandstone or shale, like we have in the Olympic Mountains.

On my last outing to visit my relatives in Pine, I harvested six, one-gallon bags of decomposed granite from various areas on the South Platte, then mailed them home to myself. The Postmistress at Baileys couldn't believe that I would ship dirt to Seattle!

Keep the good photos coming!

Jim

[Alex Hois]

Thanks for the warm welcome everybody!

Yes Jim,
It's the common granite and decomposed granite of this area.
Or to get more into detail: "An interesting mixture of metamorphic gneiss and schist is surrounded by intrusions of granite." "The domes have been rounded by a process called exfoliation, an erosion pattern common for granite intrusions.... When the Platte River Mountains uplifted through overlaying layers, sheets of Granite gradually peeled off like the layers of an onion, creating these distinctly rounded landforms." From "Hiking Colorado's Geology" by Ralph Lee Hopkins and Lindy Birkel Hopkins.

Here are a couple closeups from rock features in the canyon.

And a nice water slide, maybe a half mile down stream from Crossons


I wonder if any historic pictures of this unique waterfall exist...

And some more rocks...



And is that Dome Rock in the distance to the east?


On the way out I snapped a couple more shots, but the were all done from the car since I was in a hurry to get back to town, so excuse the shot composition...
The famous bridge in Estabrook.

Some bride abutments between Pine and Buffalo


Buffalo Creek general store

And Cathedral Spires on the way to Foxton where the road is on the old railroad grade.


Alex

[Robert McFarland]

There is a photo of the Estabrook depot in the Files  section of the DSP-P Yahoo Group under "Depots.current photos of existing depots" by David Primus .This photo was taken in 2001.Comparing DPL photos of Estabrook and Dome Rock ,these two appear to be almost identical

[Chris Walker]

Jim,

one detail that now stands out, in the Crossons WT picture you posted, shows boot cleats on the roof above the ladder, and the I.S. (uptown) WT has a Handrail on the roof: if one's boots are wet then these would indeed be more necessary than on a wooden roof of that slope angle, would they not?

[Alex Hois]

Another unique C&S site exists at the bottom of Dillon reservoir: The remains of Dickey.
It might not be the best preserved stretched,but it has been mostly undisturbed since the filling of the reservoir after the completion of the reservoir in 1963.
During the extremly dry winter of 2012-13 the water level of Dillon Reservoir dropped enough to expose the site.
Here's an overview from Swan Mountain Road. The old Breckenridge-Dillon road can be seen close to the water's edge running in and angle to the lower right. The ROW to Frisco and Fremont Pass went off to the right. The ROW from Breckenridge to Dillon can be faintly seen paralleling the road just below.


Here's a picture on the old road. It's interesting that the road markings survived under water since the sixties, yet on modern roads they seem to be gone after 2 years...



ROW towards Frisco


The remains of the cistern:
 

A collection of artifacts gathered by some other explorers, sitting on one of the water tank supports. Note the glad hand on the right with part of the air hose still attached...


Some ties even "survived" on the wye track.


And here's one for Jeff: A box culvert still does it's work on the way to Frisco...


Wish I had taken more (good) pictures. The foundations of the water tank were still there, lots of coal could be found around the coaling docks, and the wye track location was clearly visible. I also discovered a couple rotten stumps of telegraph poles stuck in the ground. There weren't any remains of the depot or the old engine house, or the structure of the coaling docks as far as I could tell, just a bunch of nails. But I'm pretty sure I could tell the location of the tracks around the docks.
I thought I've seen some pictures of Dickey from the same dry spill on this site but I couldn't find them now.
Maybe others can jump in here.

Alex

[Jeff Young]

Hi Alex,

Is that box culvert above normal water level?  I’d love to see it for myself.  (I’ll be in Breck in July.)

Cheers,
Jeff.

[Alex Hois]

Jeff,
Be aware that the area, including the box culvert, is usually 5-15feet under water and neither visible or accessible.
It looked like the stream pattern has changed since the abandonment and flooding. The raised ROW was actually damming up a stream and filling the culvert to maximum capacity. A little further up towards Frisco it had actually taken out a section of the dam. And I think I remember seeing another collapsed culvert in the area. It looked like all of the top soil has either been taken up or has been washed away by the lake since the ground was mostly gravel with mud in the lower areas. This also changed the elevations of things, but might have helped making the track locations more visible.
Alex

[Jim Courtney]

Chris,

If the metal roofs on the Idaho Springs and Smith Hill tanks were as slippery when wet as the metal roof on my house, I begin to understand why the hand rails were installed on some roofs!

Jim

[Darel Leedy]

Hi Alex,

These may be the pictures you were thinking of: http://coloradosouthern.blogspot.com/2012/12/a-visit-to-dickey.html

Thanks for sharing your pictures. Great stuff. Welcome to the forum!

[Jeff Young]

> Be aware that the area, including the box culvert, is usually 5-15feet under water and neither visible or accessible.

Rats, I was afraid of that.  (I did find an intact one last year on Poncha Pass, but that’s the “wrong” railroad.)

[Robert McFarland]

Somewhere on Poncha Pass there Might be some uncompleted grade from the "right" railroad.

[Chris Walker]

Ha, late last night here I went 'n' looked up those pictures in The Blog but then realised this was an opportunity to smoke Darel out

ps Darel, the Blog "Index of Articles" only goes back to "Along the Blue" #22 (November 21, 2013) thus needing a manual search for the earlier posts.

[Chris Walker]

Alex and David, I must say your efforts are appreciated from a Guy who in '96 has only driven those grades accessible and only recorded them on video.  I so would like another trip to get back and try out this picture matching trick.

The Cathedral Spires/Peaks/Rock.


http://cdm16079.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15330coll22/id/34536/rec/14



http://cdm16079.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/fullbrowser/collection/p15330coll22/id/78101/rv/singleitem/rec/1

Alex: Looking at the location of your picture, I'd say you were about halfway between the location of Riverview Tank and the historic McClure view as the Bridge would be further upstream behind McClure's position.  


http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm/fullbrowser/collection/p15330coll22/id/71907/rv/singleitem

[Jim Courtney]

That first "Then and Now" pair is pretty incredible, given that you took the "Now" photo from New Zealand!

[Chris Walker]

Haha, thanks Jim, the wonders of this age, eh!

The McClure photo is a bit harder due to not having been taken from the grade... I also note that the road has now been tarsealed since the '96 trip.

[Jim Courtney]

I dunno, Chris, the last ones pretty darn good!

I'd bet that, could McClure see it, he'd be flabbergasted.

[South Park]

  This is great stuff, guys.  Thanks for all your efforts and sharing.