Re: Early D&RG construction and the Panic of '73

Hank - Thanks for the timeline on the panic. I do think it does help to support the additional conversion.

Quote
Hank
OTOH, given the shortage of funds, converting a few boxes to temporary cabeese might have made sense as a stop-gap measure. Ya pays yer money and ya takes yer choice

Even if they used coaches as mixed train cabeese to supplement the original 4, there's still over 163 miles of RR to operate (most of that by the end of '72). A quick thumb through of C+10 shows 101 freight cars in '71, about 259 in '72, roughly 426 in '73 and 509 in '74. So even without building more track during the panic the RR was still building by adding cars, business and trains. And if Palmer had to cut corners because of funding to finance the revenue car orders, I'd say that's very much an incentive to convert an old box or two. I suppose we'll never know if there was just the one conversion or more. If this issue has escaped notice until now there can't be much other evidence given the scrutiny the ColoNGs have enjoyed over the years. If there is it would probably be if there are enough pics of the boxes as sheds - closer scrutiny of them might show conversion evidence similar to the car in the Buena Vista pics.

Greg