Re: Silverton Nothern Casey Jones Railbus In Service?

The delaminating plywood in the door and missing battery would indicate the Casey was in Eureka towards the 1942 dismantling date for the Silverton Northern. We have earlier pictures, one in color, at the same location with the car in better shape. Service on the SN ended about 1938 with the closure of the mine and mill after the strike. Jack Rentfrow, who was the Durango Trainmaster until the last day of D&RGW ownership related to me that his first trip over the Silverton branch was by motor car about 1940-41. He rode past the Silverton depot until the track became so bad he couldn't continue. When he returned to the depot, the agent informed him that he had ventured out on the SN not knowing he was on another railroad. When operations ceased on the SN in 1938, so did maintenance, so by the time these pictures of the Casey Jones were taken, it was basically stranded in Eureka. It was trucked to Silverton during the war and was on display for many years next to the Mobil gas station that was also a motel, and that building is now the ZE Supply business on Greene Street. The Casey was purchased by the Turner family who were in banking in Durango. They moved the Casey to Durango and it was in storage on the private car track until the family donated it to the San Juan County Historical Society in 1965 and it came back to Silverton.