Re: Silica

Posted by Norm Acker on Nov 17, 2015; 2:37am
URL: http://c-sng-discussion-forum.254.s1.nabble.com/Silica-tp2143p3941.html

Hi group, new member Norm here. I think the information and photos posted here are excellent. I have been daydreaming about modeling the terminus of this branch for years now (I`m in On3 and I've only gotten as far as the stub turnout on the Waterton wye). From looking at the Silica pictures from 1941 it seems there were two parallel spur tracks, one for staging cars and one for loading silica. A loading platform like the one in Blackhawk would have been useful, but probably not affordable for the branch. I've always assumed the long piles adjacent to the loading track were loaded by hand, although it would be very difficult to shovel from the ground level into the cars. There is also a photo somewhere of a crew of men transloading ng silica cars with shovels to standard gauge gons in Denver, so it's easy to assume that was the preferred transfer method in Silica as well. Any ideas?

It's also interesting to note that a derail with a harp stand seems to be located before the road crossing.

I currently live about 1.5 miles north of the old Silica town site. The old roadbed and quarry cart track bed are still clearly evident when walking the site, which is the current home of the Roxborough Park fire station.

I have to sheepishly admit that I've toyed with the idea of modeling a dilapidated steam shovel to help those overworked shovelers...

Thanks for all the great info, photos and modeling data.