Train Time at Shawnee (MP 59.6)

[Jim Courtney]

Last week was a great week for picking up C&S photos on eBay.

I had seen this photo as a blurry image, with printing bleeding through from the back, on the Park County Local History Archives page http://www.parkcoarchives.org/photos/photos5/photos_shawnee.html as negative No. 982.

But a vendor on eBay seemed to have a much better print of the same scene:





I didn't realize that fly rods were really that long!

The photo is undated but must be between 1900 and 1905:  Ken Martin noted in the passenger car section of Narrow Gauge Pictorial VIII that baggage-mail car number 115 was destroyed by fire at the Seventh Street Shops on February 13, 1906, and was never renumbered in the 1906 sequence.  

The first coach behind 115 has it's number obscured by ladies with big hats, perhaps Ken can identify it. The last coach has the tall windows, with very narrow letter board, suggesting it was originally one of the DSP&P 1886 cars built by Pullman, numbers 18-21 (http://www.midcontinent.org/rollingstock/CandS/dsp-passenger/coach_18-21a.htm); the only car to have a number ending in a "3" in the pre-1906 numbering scheme was 163,  C&S 79 after 1906.

Given a mail-baggage car on the head end, this must be the eastbound Leadville to Denver passenger train. The corner of the rustic Shawnee depot is at left.

When I scanned this print into my digital files, I realized I had quite a few Shawnee photos, so why post just one when you can post a bunch?


http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15330coll22/id/78061/rec/978

McClure photo c1910.


A similar scene of activity at the Shawnee depot, as the Denver bound passenger makes its stop, even includes more fly rods and ladies with big hats.  And given the reflections on the passenger car sides, one can see why they were referred to as "the varnish".



http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15330coll22/id/306/rec/500



After the train had departed McClure turned his camera to the south and photographed the Shawnee Lodge and the depot by the little bridge over the South Platte, in detail below:







George Diary, in the Klingers' Platte Canyon Memories . . . , page 171.

Sadie George photographed the Shawnee depot about 1912, as part of her photo-diary.




Circa 1915, Park county Local History Archives, negative 518.

Similar activity waiting for the train at Shawnee, only the clothing seems to change, with fewer and smaller hats on the ladies.




1920s, Park county Local History Archives, negative 329.

The little bridge over the South Platte by the depot; Shawnee Lodge is in distance.



Now, does anyone have a photo of Shawnee Tank, just to the west of the depot??

[Jeff Young]

Cracking photos, Jim!

[ComoDepot]

Could it not be a fishing special?

[Jim Courtney]

Possibly, but the "Fish Trains" generally carried just a combine at the head end.

Both of the top two photos include an RPO of sorts: The early photo has first number 115, an RPO-baggage.  The second train in the 1910 McClure photo includes a two door express car followed by one of the RPO-coaches.  To me, that implies that both trains are the eastbound, Leadville to Denver passenger train.


http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15330coll22/id/42516/rec/85



An Otto Perry view of a "Fish Train" leaving Denver westbound in 1920.


But that may be drawing too fine a point. Up until the post WWI period, there was a lot of rail passenger business between Denver and Grant, serving the many Platte Canon lodges, both great and small. Fishing vacationers or weekend anglers might take the Fish Train up to Shawnee one afternoon and return to Denver a day or more later on the afternoon Leadville to Denver passenger. Evidently, the express compartments of all the head end cars, including the RPO-Baggage cars, were equipped with "fish racks" (whatever those really were).

Jim

[Chris Walker]

Great to see you're keeping up the good work, Jim.  In your 1915 shot the TO Board is against the Train, was Shawnee a manned Station at that time?  Given the style of construction, I never suspected it was Officered.

[Jim Courtney]

Hey Chris,

It is my understanding that Shawnee was a seasonal station, with agent/operator stationed there during the summer tourist season, say late May to mid September.  I'm not sure how long after WW1 that lasted.

I've read somewhere that the short 2 car spur at the depot was to accommodate shipments to the C&S owned Shawnee Lodge:  Furniture, bedding, fixtures, building supplies, food stuffs, etc, in boxcars as L-C-L shipments.  The short spur at Glen Isle probably served the same function.

In the first decade, the C&S contracted out operations of the big lodges at Baileys and Shawnee to individuals, later they were operated by the C&S Dining Car Department, then sold off by the late 19teens.  

One passage (CRA 12??) states that for the opening of the season, a couple of boxcars or reefers of ice would be spotted at the depot spur, and the ice moved by wagon to a storage ice house at the Shawnee Lodge.

Jim

[Jim Courtney]

It wasn't always fishing in the warm summer sun along the South Platte at Shawnee:



The west bound Leadville passenger train approaches the Shawnee depot, some winter in the mid 19teens.

Generally, Platte Canon didn't usually endure the snow conditions of the South Park, Boreas Pass or Ten Mile Canon, but some winters were harder than others, like the fabled Blizzard of December, 1913. Below, two engines from Como push the rotary eastbound to clear the Platte Canon rails. The first engine is 2-8-0 number 70 (with a "Como" spark arrester), the second engine appears to be a Cooke mogul, trailing a caboose. The rotary train has likely just taken water at Shawnee Tank, and is approaching the Shawnee depot. The lodge is in the left background.

On December 8, 1913, number 70 was helping number 9 double head the westbound Leadville passenger train, when both engines derailed at a road crossing at Maddox, just to the east of Shawnee.  So this photo may have been taken a within the few days prior.



Both images from the Park County Local History Archives: http://www.parkcoarchives.org/photos/photos5/photos_shawnee.html


Now if we could just find a photo of Shawnee Tank at MP 59.9 to round out this thread . . .

[ComoDepot]

Thanks, I have not seen a photo of the Rotary down there before.

South Park usually does not get a lot of snow, but I can see Como would be a logical location for the Rotary to be based.

What South Park does get is wind and if you do not hit the drifts early you can be in real trouble.

This winter for example there have been some major dumps in Denver etc and nothing of consequence up here, I could see that had they had such a winter back then they could have easily needed to run the Rotary all the way to Union Station.

[Jim Courtney]

Yes, December, 1913, was the big one for the C&S narrow gauge in the 20th century, even Denver was hit hard. That winter was the only recorded instance of the rotary being run up Clear Creek.  

Photos in the Colorado Rail Annual 10 show the rotary at the Golden depot and subsequently arriving at Blackhawk on December 11th, 1913, likely in the same week of the rotary train passing through Shawnee.

[ComoDepot]

That sort of terrain would not suit the Rotary, a bit like Durango to Silverton, rock slides.

[Jim Courtney]

The Shawnee depot survived, though in disrepair, to see the scraping trains at the very end.


Richard B Jackson photo in Colorado Rail Annual 12, page 238.


No order board is visible, the little log depot likely hasn't been a functioning station since the Shawnee Lodge burned down in August, 1929.  Do you think a lightning strike took out part of the chimney?

Also note the station letter boards over the years, at least 3 different styles of lettering.

[Ken Martin]

I believe the first coach is either 159 (57) or 160 (56). Built in 1878 by Barney and Smith.
If it is 160 then I would date your photo before 1901 as 160 was involved in a wreck at Stone Spur below Foxton in 1901.
It was rebuilt and before abandonment was modified but I don't know when.

http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15330coll22/id/72058/rec/5



For other photos of the wreck search DPL for "Foxton".

Ken Martin

[Jim Courtney]

Thanks for your thoughts, Ken.

Can the passenger car lettering style (pin strip box on lower car sides, numbers on the ends of the sides and the letter boards with fancy filigree on the roof overhang fascia) date the photo any further?

Is this the "original" C&S lettering style of 1900?  When did the stripping disappear (it seems to persist in the c1910 McClure photo).

Jim

[Keith Hayes]

Jim, it appears that the depot is on the south side of the track, which would point the train in the first picture east towards Denver. I suggest that this is the Leadville-Denver train, and it is picking up folks returning to the big city from a weekend of fishing and family time.

[Jim Courtney]

Three more Shawnee photos from the Park county Archives http://www.parkcoarchives.org/photos/photos5/photos_shawnee.html



Negative 456.

A westbound passenger train approaches the depot at Shawnee, just out of frame to the right, circa early 1920s. The first car appears to be a short express car, the last is a flat roof excursion car.  Perhaps this is a "Fish Train" on its way to Grant, to tie up for the night. The Lodge is at the right background.




Negative 120. Shawnee. Depot. 1937. Source: Minerva Price Graham.

A view of the depot in the distance, looking north from the Shawnee Lodge.




Negative 115. Shawnee. 1920s. Source: Minerva Price Graham.

A "color" view of the little bridge at the depot, 1920s.

[South Park]

  I often use Google Earth satellite view to study areas.  It often helps me get my
head in a place for what is where in relation to what.  However, no amount of study
has allowed me to find my way back to 1920.