Re: Richard B. Jackson's South Park Photo Album

Posted by Mike Trent on Apr 29, 2023; 4:23pm
URL: http://c-sng-discussion-forum.254.s1.nabble.com/Richard-B-Jackson-s-South-Park-Photo-Album-tp18596p18641.html

A comment on the picture of the last trains meeting at Long Meadow. The last day of regular operations on the Mainline between Denver and Leadville was Saturday, April 10th, 1937. Being a Saturday, the Passenger train would be running Eastbound and the "Regular" Extra Freight would also be running Eastbound out of Como. Train Days in Como, when freights arrived from both Leadville on the West End, and Denver, on the East End arrived in Como on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. The Passenger Train ran Westbound on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, Eastbound on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. So normally, the Passenger Train ran Westbound on the same days as Westbound Freights on the East End and against Eastbound Freights on the West End. So the opposite was true on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. The Eastbound Passenger ran opposite the Westbound Freight out of Como, and followed the Eastbound Freight to Denver on the East End. So a meet of this kind at Long Meadow would be unusual. The helper on the Westbound Freight in the picture is probably #69, as it appears to have a brass number plate. This Extra probably has consigned freight that was over tonnage for the previous Westbound Extra which ran on Friday.

So it would be misleading to think that the Passenger train would regularly meet a freight extra like this on the East End. They would normally meet on the West End every day, as the Eastbound Freights out of Leadville were much slower due to switching operations toward Como on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and would also meet on the West End on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday because the Passenger left from Leadville and the Freight left out of Como.

The picture definitely shows the Passenger Eastbound and the Extra Freight Westbound because the freight engines are double headed. I'm sure this was April 10th, the last day.  There would have had to be some cleanup to do out on the West End afterward.