Re: How about D&RG cars on the C&S??

Posted by Jim Courtney on
URL: http://c-sng-discussion-forum.254.s1.nabble.com/C-S-Cars-on-the-D-RGW-at-Marshall-Pass-tp7805p7824.html

I would have thought that cars for Alma, FairPlay and Garos would have been interchanged at Buena Vista.  It is listed as an interchange point for the C&S in the ORER, i.e., Equipment Register.

As Chris pointed out, after 1910, when Trout Creek flooded out the mainline, the line from Buena Vista to Garos was abandoned.  As Alpine tunnel closed the same year, this left Buena Vista to Hancock (later cut back to Romley) as an isolated C&S branch line, connected to the outside world only by the D&RG 3-rail mainline. Any cars passing over Marshall Pass, consigned to Buena Vista, would likely destined to Romley branch stations, particularly coal for the mills of the Mary Murphy complex.

Any traffic (and it seems mostly coal) consigned to the above C&S stations from the Gunnison area would have to travel Gunnison--> Salida--> Leadville--> Climax--> Breckenridge--> Boreas Pass --> Como and then south to the also isolated Como to Alma branch line stations.

These records are from 1923, right?

Interesting how many box cars were pressed into carrying coal. And not just any D&RG stock cars, loaded with lumber or mine props, but the long 5900 series cars!!  

As there is no record of Gunnison area coal being consigned to points east of Como, it is likely that inbound coal for the Platte Canyon stations, especially Pine Grove with its coal chute, came from the southern Colorado coal fields via the C&S standard gauge, and transferred to narrow gauge coal cars at Denver.  Locomotive coal for Como likely also came from Denver.

And would you believe, D&RG drop bottom gons passed through Como, as well. Stopping a while in the yard before being forwarded to the Alma branch!

Thanks for all this great info, Pat. I, for one, am learning a lot of new things here.

Jim