Two more C&S boxcars found!

[Kurt Maechner]

I know others may have heard already, but I just recently found out that two narrow gauge C&S boxcars were found on a farm in western Colorado and a fund raising campaign has been started in order to bring them to Como for restoration.  Here is a post I put together about the find and a link to the fundraising site as well.  I also chronicle a few other C&S cars that came to us by having been found after being used as a shed.

This is exciting news.  "If you build it, they will come" seems to apply to Como more and more.

Enjoy!
Kurt

[Fritz 52]

Kurt:
This is indeed execellent news! Maybe out there somewhere there's a few more to be found yet.
I am curious about something I had read once upon a time. Didn't the WP&Y have a few boxcars? I thought they had been given some when the war effort during WW2 moved some motive power there to help out. I know that they had a few C&S locos, would there be some rolling stock too?
Fred Cotterell.

[Tim B]

There were a large number of C&S cars that went to the WP&Y. After the South Park Rail Society is able to move the two (Type 2) boxcars over to Como, our plan is to head to Skagway and try to recover a couple Type 3 steel frame boxcars and bring them back to Como. That way we can exhibit a C&S type 1(0), a type 2 and a type 3 boxcar. We were hoping to save one of the last few C&S reefer cars that sat in a back yard in Skagway for decades until recently. However, its beginning to look like its too late as the car body has recently disappeared. Scrapped??

Of course, we need to get the type 2s moved first and with the help of the Narrow Gauge Preservation Foundation who have offered to match all donations dollar for dollar, we are getting closer, Click Here is You would Like to help Any donations you make will be doubled by the NGPF. Our thanks goes out to all who have contributed so far and the other members of this board who have offered guidance (and equipment) to help us with this C&S Boxcar Project.

[Fritz 52]

5Tim,

That is more great news! I hope that you are successful up in Alaska. Too bad that the locos sent up there didn't survive. I think i read somewhere that one was used as fill somewhere in the NWBand another was rilumored as being thrownoverboard or dumped into tue sea. I think a number of D&RGW locos unfortunately met that fate also.
Fred Cotterell.

[South Park]

  The C&S locos sent to run on the WP&Y were photographed on a dead line
in Auburn, Washington, awaiting the scrapper's torch in 1946.

[Todd A Ferguson]

Did any C&S narrow gauge cars go to Hawaii during the war...

[Jim Courtney]

Yep:

http://ngdiscussion.net/phorum/read.php?1,179624,179734#msg-179734



There were likely quite a few others. Sloan's book on the RGS states that in 1942, a total of 57 ex-C&S boxcars, 1 ex C&S reefer (1108) and 4 ex-C&S stock cars, that were owned by Victor Miller, were sold to the Chicago Freight Car Parts Co. (CFCP). The cars were evidently rebuilt at Salida for resale to the US Government. It is unclear how many went to Alaska and how many served at Pearl Harbor.

CFCP also rebuilt many of the surviving D&RGW 4000 series boxcars at Salida for US Navy use:




Even the SP was able to indirectly contribute to the war effort in the Pacific, by way of the NCNG:




Ex-SP number 1, later NCNG 9, 2-8-0 was converted to an 0-8-0 switcher and used around the Navy Yard at Pearl Harbor.

I haven't seen any info on how many cars that the C&S contributed directly, when the Idaho Springs and South Platte segments were finally abandoned. Anyone know??

[Fritz 52]

Jim:
To quote the pro-wrestler Ryback, 'Feed me more! Feed me more
! Feed me more!' Great finds. Just adds fuel to the fire for me to seevwhat is really left.
Fred Cotterell
C&S Ohio Creek Subdivision
"The Kebler Pass Line'

[Jim Courtney]

The conventional wisdom that I have read says that the narrow gauge boxcars from the D&RGW, C&S, NCNG, etc., that were refurbished by CFCP for Pearl Harbor, were painted dark "Navy Blue" with white lettering.

The photo of the 4000 series boxcars at Salida suggests a color darker than the freight car red of the cabooses.

Does anyone have have a source for this or color photo?

[Jim Courtney]

While surfing the web, I stumbled upon this iconic photo:




The USS Yorktown is in drydock at Pearl Harbor following the Battle of the Coral Sea, where the carrier sustained bomb and torpedo damage. The Yorktown is undergoing emergency repairs to allow her to participate in the upcoming Battle of Midway, where she will be sunk. Note the 3-foot gauge boxcars on the pier alongside.

A companion photo from the ship:




On the pier, where a pair of Gridley class destroyers are birthed, are two strings of narrow gauge boxcars. I've squinted and strained but can't identify with confidence any C&S or D&RGW cars in the cuts of cars. As this is late May, 1942, the rolling stock from Colorado may not have yet made it to Oahu.

Imagine, after a life of hauling freight over Boreas and Fremont Passes, to end your days moving 20 mm, 40 mm and 5-inch ammunition from the inland ammunition dumps to warships alongside. Hardly a tropical retirement . . .