Re: Richard B. Jackson's South Park Photo Album
Posted by Dave Eggleston on Apr 12, 2023; 5:15pm
URL: http://c-sng-discussion-forum.254.s1.nabble.com/Richard-B-Jackson-s-South-Park-Photo-Album-tp18596p18605.html
Steffen,
The track arrangement at Gunnison was remarkably like that in 1882, with some minor changes. Those white "blocks" are the remaining stumps of the roundhouse walls around each door opening.
Here is how it was found by the ICC in their 1918 survey of the property, the South Park's facilities centered around the wye on the left, with the D&RGW line to Crested Butte up the middle with interchange with the C&S track. Gunnison proved a bust for the railroads very early on, with expected boom traffic fizzling by 1884.
Jackson was standing across the track from the little hand, looking south towards the roundhouse and wye. Track to Baldwin heads north from the wye, mainline to the tunnel to the right from the wye.
You can purchase the Gunnison Division ICC maps from the Colorado Railroad Museum.
The C&S stopped using Gunnison in 1911, trading the operations of the Baldwin - Gunnison - Pitkin trackage to the D&RGW while taking over the ops on the D&RGW Blue River track east out of Leadville to Kokomo and beyond. But from 1882 to 1910, the South Park, UPD&G and C&S ran through the yard that looked almost identical to this post-C&S operations map. Traffic was primarily coal westbound, empties eastbound from the mid-1880s to the end, except during the extended (up to 8 months some years) closures of Alpine Tunnel when traffic became a trickle of every-other-day mixed trains to Pitkin or Baldwin. When coal was mined during those tunnel closure periods (the mines often closed in winter) the coal traffic would flow over Marshall Pass on the D&RG.
The D&RGW operated the ex-C&S (South Park) trackage from Gunnison to Baldwin into the 1940s to access the coal mines. The light bridges forced the use of small D&RGW 2-8-0s in the Gunnison area. The D&RGW let the South Park roundhouse decay to ruin, the station was a section house, possibly a private residence at times, and didn't use much of the South Park track besides the main as it had no need for the C&S facilities.
URL: http://c-sng-discussion-forum.254.s1.nabble.com/Richard-B-Jackson-s-South-Park-Photo-Album-tp18596p18605.html
Steffen,
The track arrangement at Gunnison was remarkably like that in 1882, with some minor changes. Those white "blocks" are the remaining stumps of the roundhouse walls around each door opening.
Here is how it was found by the ICC in their 1918 survey of the property, the South Park's facilities centered around the wye on the left, with the D&RGW line to Crested Butte up the middle with interchange with the C&S track. Gunnison proved a bust for the railroads very early on, with expected boom traffic fizzling by 1884.
Jackson was standing across the track from the little hand, looking south towards the roundhouse and wye. Track to Baldwin heads north from the wye, mainline to the tunnel to the right from the wye.
You can purchase the Gunnison Division ICC maps from the Colorado Railroad Museum.
The C&S stopped using Gunnison in 1911, trading the operations of the Baldwin - Gunnison - Pitkin trackage to the D&RGW while taking over the ops on the D&RGW Blue River track east out of Leadville to Kokomo and beyond. But from 1882 to 1910, the South Park, UPD&G and C&S ran through the yard that looked almost identical to this post-C&S operations map. Traffic was primarily coal westbound, empties eastbound from the mid-1880s to the end, except during the extended (up to 8 months some years) closures of Alpine Tunnel when traffic became a trickle of every-other-day mixed trains to Pitkin or Baldwin. When coal was mined during those tunnel closure periods (the mines often closed in winter) the coal traffic would flow over Marshall Pass on the D&RG.
The D&RGW operated the ex-C&S (South Park) trackage from Gunnison to Baldwin into the 1940s to access the coal mines. The light bridges forced the use of small D&RGW 2-8-0s in the Gunnison area. The D&RGW let the South Park roundhouse decay to ruin, the station was a section house, possibly a private residence at times, and didn't use much of the South Park track besides the main as it had no need for the C&S facilities.
Dave Eggleston
Seattle, WA
Seattle, WA
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