Rest in peace, Chile John
| July 21, 2009 08:23PM |
This evening I was informed my friend Chile John Pritchard had died last week, following complications from an aneurysm.
I met Chile John vie the Internet about 15 years ago. I posted a question on some forum about the Crystal River Railroad’s Ingoldsby dump cars and one of the replies was his. We quickly struck up a friendship, even though we didn’t meet for several years. He hated using email and preferred to “chat” with AOL’s Instant Messenger (IM) service. Our conversations on IM were many, long and varied over the years.
We finally met in Chama one day where we chased that day’s train. We chased and rode many trains over the following years. John was instrumental in the creation of the Cumbres and Toltec and his love for it never faltered. He loved all Colorado railroads, but the C&TS had a special place in his heart.
John served America as a radio operator in the Air Force.
He loved good scotch and bad puns.
He loved classical music.
He loved his smelly old pipe.
He loved the Denver Broncos, whether they deserved it or not.
He owned and operated Eldorado Railways, a supplier of large scale trestle kits, for many years.
John had a cabin near Crested Butte at the old mining town of Pittsburg. He was kind enough to let me use it the first summer I moved to Gunnison County while looking for a house.
He moved from his beloved Santa Fe to Canon City early last year due to declining health; he needed to be closer to family.
My family and I often visited John in Santa Fe. Once we were there for his birthday and we took him out to dinner. When we began the obligatory singing of “Happy Birthday” over dessert, a nearby table joined in in FINE voice. Turns out they were interns from the Santa Fe Opera, and “Happy Birthday” never sounded so fine. John always savored that night.
John always signed off IM with “Luv to the family.”
So if you’ve got a glass of scotch handy, please consider making a toast to a good friend of the narrow gauge. I’ll miss him.
Matt Hutson
Gunnison, CO
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/22/2009 03:47PM by mhutson.
I met Chile John vie the Internet about 15 years ago. I posted a question on some forum about the Crystal River Railroad’s Ingoldsby dump cars and one of the replies was his. We quickly struck up a friendship, even though we didn’t meet for several years. He hated using email and preferred to “chat” with AOL’s Instant Messenger (IM) service. Our conversations on IM were many, long and varied over the years.
We finally met in Chama one day where we chased that day’s train. We chased and rode many trains over the following years. John was instrumental in the creation of the Cumbres and Toltec and his love for it never faltered. He loved all Colorado railroads, but the C&TS had a special place in his heart.
John served America as a radio operator in the Air Force.
He loved good scotch and bad puns.
He loved classical music.
He loved his smelly old pipe.
He loved the Denver Broncos, whether they deserved it or not.
He owned and operated Eldorado Railways, a supplier of large scale trestle kits, for many years.
John had a cabin near Crested Butte at the old mining town of Pittsburg. He was kind enough to let me use it the first summer I moved to Gunnison County while looking for a house.
He moved from his beloved Santa Fe to Canon City early last year due to declining health; he needed to be closer to family.
My family and I often visited John in Santa Fe. Once we were there for his birthday and we took him out to dinner. When we began the obligatory singing of “Happy Birthday” over dessert, a nearby table joined in in FINE voice. Turns out they were interns from the Santa Fe Opera, and “Happy Birthday” never sounded so fine. John always savored that night.
John always signed off IM with “Luv to the family.”
So if you’ve got a glass of scotch handy, please consider making a toast to a good friend of the narrow gauge. I’ll miss him.
Matt Hutson
Gunnison, CO
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/22/2009 03:47PM by mhutson.
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488 stops for water at Los Pinos tank on closing day Oct. 1979. Photo courtesy Don Richter
The NGDF was started by Don Richter and is currently operated in his memory by Nathan Holmes and others. Others who have contributed to the upkeep of this board are (in no particular order): Charles McCandless, Everett Lueck, Ted Wilton, Cole Adams, James Bane, John Moellmer, Jon Bentz, Linn Moedinger, lloyd lehrer, Rod Jensen, John Craft, Steven Forney, Herb Kelsey, Bill Ramaley, Russ Sperry (El Russo Loco), Josh McNeal, John West, Jim Armstrong, Bob Bergstrom, Greg Scholl, Blake Forbes Doug van Veelen and Mark Fuller.