What warrants a depot

[Keith Hayes]

Studying the timetable, all points are listed as 'stations.' This includes both Dickey and Frisco as well as other points, like Boreas, that have no formal depot structure. I have to support Espee on this point: a station is a place and a depot is a structure. I wonder if this is a holdover or shorthand for the surveying term, "station point," which is the tick located at intervals to denote distance along a path?

The structure at Alpine was really more for train orders, as only railroad employees would get off there, and the same goes for Boreas, I guess. Though it had the stone engine house/ roundhouse, I don't recall a depot, just the log section house which survives. I believe Kenosha had a depot, but this was gone in later years.

The C&S was not terribly good about building depots, or at least making them last. For example, Climax (Fremont Pass) generated considerable revenue in later years, and the section house stood in as the depot. I guess Leadville served as the Agency to generate all the traffic from this point? Breck also had considerable traffic, and got a depot, but it was not in the best shape at the end of operations. I guess you could say that about the whole railroad. Compared to the D&RGW with the many clapboard and shingle structures and their graceful eaves, the C&S had much more austere depots (Como, Dillon and Breck), with only a handful like Jefferson and Leadville standing out as being 'fancy.' Oh, and Kokomo.

This may be what draws us all to model the C&S--this random consistency to surprise with the unexpected and juxtapose small consolidations and their Ridgeway spark arrestors with modern steel-framed wood rolling stock.

[Dave Eggleston]

Don't forget Silver Plume, Idaho Springs and even the brick edifice at Central City! All were built full of promise and glory and, ultimately, succumbed to, while still contrasting with, the decay in later years.

[Keith Hayes]

Colorado Central,  Dave!

[Dave Eggleston]

Of course, but ultimately part of the C&S. Weren't some other depots referenced on this thread pre-C&S, also, built by the DSP&P and successors?

[Keith Hayes]

Most certainly. I am finding the more I learn about the South Park and Clear Creek how different the two lines are. We should really discuss this point over a beer next week, though.

[Dave Eggleston]

Silver Plume's depot is a UP structure, Central's a UPD&G, BTW, not true CC, which points to a discussion topic: Do you think the UP's financial meddling and intermingling of crew and equipment blurred and muddied the original identities of the two railroads, especially post-1885? And then Trumbull mixed things further. Not erased, but blurred and co-mingled creating something not DSP&P nor CC. Get out that beer! This would make an interesting chat.

[South Park]

    LOL  

  This is a subject that confounds me ... my historical friends, who will refer to,
say, a section of railroad as the "BN Main", when in fact, it was built 90 years
before the BN existed, by the NP, which in itself is a strong relevant part of the
actual discussion ...  like calling that 1886 depot in Dayton, Wa. a "BN depot".

  So many of these early roads had strong character DNA, such as depot styles,
the way locomotives were equipped and looked, etc.  How both the DSP&P and
CC evolved this way, through buyouts, etc. is fascinating unto itself.

[Keith Hayes]

Aw gees, my lack of Clear Creek erudition is found out!

[Jim Courtney]

Can I drink Scotch??


And here is a photo from "The Pictorial Supplement . . . " for ComoDepot:

The original Kenosha Depot, built by the South Park as the railroad was built across the pass . . .




This little depot was likely to accommodate the operator at Kenosha, to keep train orders flowing to the crews doubling both sides of the pass.

The view to the east is the same today, but every thing else has sure changed.

The photographer is standing about where today's gravel road (from the parking area on Hwy 285, to the campground parking area near the restored tail of the wye) crosses the old grade. Every time I visit Kenosha, I try to stand on this spot, squint my eyes and imagine the little depot still standing, with a couple of light engines waiting on the main, ready to return to Denver or Como . . .

[Dave Eggleston]

Fantastic photo, and of course you can drink Scotch! Too bad we can't be sitting on the platform and raise a toast while watching a Mason haul 3 cars past us.

Is that a dead deer arranged on the bench below the window?

[Jim Courtney]

Is that a dead deer arranged on the bench below the window?

I've wondered abut that.  Either the track crew is having venison for dinner, or that is the strangest burro that I've ever seen!

Another photo from the Supplement . . . shows the little depot during late DL&G / early C&S days:




Nestled inside the wye, the depot has had a mud room added to the front, and most windows have been boarded up as protection against the winter snows. (A little snow remains along the foundation to the left). Fortunately, women's clothing became more flattering as the new century progressed.

The little depot survived at least until the 1918 valuation survey, perhaps all the way to abandonment.

[ComoDepot]

I have the Pictorial Supplement, need to see if there is a date.

There are far more trees up there now, but that in itself would not date the photo.

Seems that the head if the track may have been briefly at Kenosha, no signs of such activity, does beg the question what trackage was needed at the head of the track.

[Dave Eggleston]

A passing siding, a flat area to dump materials, a way to turn engines. Not much, really, just capacity for unloading.

[Jim Courtney]

I have the Pictorial Supplement, need to see if there is a date.


Mac Poor, in his station list, states the depot was at altitude of 9,991 feet, station call "KN", and had a gentleman named F. B. Ross as station agent in 1885, so it must have been there by that date.

The depot was 16 x 24 feet with an addition on rear of 11 x 13 feet. The depot when built cost $1,200.00 to construct, quite a bit for the mid 1880's. Although the depot is shown on the 1918 valuation map, Poor states that the depot was dismantled in January, 1919.

Trackage at Kenosha included a total of 3,162 feet of sidings and a wye.

Interestingly, there was also a frame "car repair shop" of 12 x 28 feet in the early days. Just long enough to repair a Litchfield boxcar or coal car, but the 30 foot Peninsular cars would have protruded out the end.

[Mike Trent]

Those guys look like hunters to me. At least most of them do. With rifles. Those aren't shovels or scoops. And the third guy from the left looks like he has a dog. And one deer. But I'm sure they've had a hell of a time. They look like a posse. They'd scoff at Camo and the weapons of today.

[ComoDepot]

The first photo just seems to show a passing track and no wye and the main seems to be by the Depot, the main seems to have switched to the center track later.

We tend to think of the track plans as they developed, always wondered what the the first iteration was, my assumption is that it was very limited. I would assume the Kenosha Depot came was not there in 1879, we come back to Station vs Depot again.

Also begs the question how they operated initially assuming there was no wye, Weston had a wye, did Como? Seems unlikely Weston wye would have been put in after Weston was abandoned so presume it was there in the winter of 79.

[South Park]

  " .... Fortunately, women's clothing became more flattering as the new century progressed.

The little depot survived at least until the 1918 valuation survey, perhaps all the way to abandonment. "

===================================================

  Not sure I agree with your first point, Jim.  🤔

(image of hideous nature removed by poster for the sake of humanity and a
better world for all.  Apologies to those who will never unsee that)

===================================================

  As for the Kenosha structures, it seems to me there was a note in Klingers'
book, reporting on a local purchasing the buildings and moving them off the
mountain toward Denver with a truck.

[Jim Courtney]

Point made, SP.

[Robert McFarland]

I would think that the earlier Kenosha depot  photo would be in the 1879-80 range-look at the ties.

[South Park]

  "Point made, SP.

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  Gotta admit though, the black lace cutaway blouse and crimson-with-black-
stripe hair are sure to stir passion in a man's loins.