Re: Mystery DL&G outfit car

Posted by Dave Eggleston on Jul 19, 2023; 5:55pm
URL: http://c-sng-discussion-forum.254.s1.nabble.com/Mystery-DL-G-outfit-car-tp18906p18973.html

I've been camping and came back to find some great discussion and theorizing! I know it isn’t critical but in the interest of accuracy at mile 3 the GSL&P left Boulder Canyon, turning into Four Mile Canyon which it followed to Sunset; all stations were on this stretch of the line. I lean to 03005 being in Four Mile Canyon.

Jim, resurfacing that 1899 list puts the number 03005 now entirely within reason, in a range held by narrow gauge cars. I can still find no other source showing cars in this range of numbers and wonder when it was applied and why it was not reported. Of course it not being on that list makes absolute sense, too. It was a shed in Tovey's back yard. I still think the number was given no later than 1892 and quite possibly years earlier.

Source of the car, for me, has focused on cars from Barney & Smith, Ohio Falls or the standard gauge. But the discussion on the Billmeyer D&RG car possibility led me to another possibility: What if 03005 is an 1880 AT&SF-ordered St Charles car that had somehow found itself in the South Park's hands?

In a nutshell, the AT&SF ordered 100 St Charles narrow gauge boxcars in December 1879. The Royal Gorge war left these unused after their delivery in mid-1879 just as the South Park found itself over-run with Leadville traffic and blockaded. The South Park leased the AT&SF engines and equipment in August. These cars ran extensively on the line during the period the line was extending from Garos to Buena Vista from September 1879 to March 1880 when they were returned to the AT&SF.

There is one photo of the boxcars on the Arkansas River bridge but for this conversation the best photo was taken later on the D&RG, found in the C&TS Dorman collection, also once shared in a thread here by Jim.



A flat-bottomed end fascia. A bigger car. That end door that could be extended. Humans on top at the end for comparison.

The AT&SF lost the Royal Gorge War and by March 1880 was collecting cars back in Canon City. In October 1880 the AT&SF sent most but not all of these cars back east.  Could there be something in the cars that didn't return east? From the AT&SF Annual Reports of 1879, 1880 and 1881 we know:

- 50 of the St Charles cars had been ordered by the AT&SF for the D&RG; an unspecified number were sent to that line in October 1880 (Colorado Daily 10/8/1880). We know they became numbers 2300-2349, suggesting all 50 made it to the D&RG.
- 20 boxcars and 25 flatcars were purchased by an undisclosed buyer. Ron Rudnick builds the case this buyer was not the South Park based on the lack of a numbering “hole” for these cars to fit in. I tend to agree, plus other cars were coming online. But one crazy thought: What if this purchase was the South Park "buying" cars it had destroyed during the 6 months of operation--and there were NO cars to put on the roster as a result?
- 6 freight cars are unaccounted for.

The idea of 03005 being one of these unidentified/unaccounted boxcars or that one of the D&RG cars somehow got into South Park hands after the fact isn't completely out of the realm of possibility.

What if one of the St Charles cars got stranded and left behind in 1880? What if one was wrecked in 1879/1880 but later retrucked and put in service before conversion to an outfit car?

Just thinking here, adding St Charles to the possible list for what its worth.