Re: Tracking Ghost Railroads In Colorado

Bob Ormes and I both taught at Colorado College and were good friends. He was in the English Dept and I was in Math. Both of us also taught courses in history. I moved to Durango in 1973 to teach at Fort Lewis College. When Bob came to Durango he'd stay at our house. My daughter called him the "Grapefruit Man" because he'd bring us one of those net-sacks of grapefruit when he came. I never did ask him why he did that.
Bob's courses on railroads evolved into the book. Many of his students helped doing field work for and with him. From 1970 on, the calendar of Colorado College, where each term consisted of 3 or 3 1/2 weeks and students took just one course during that term, helped him greatly as far as scheduling went.
Let me stick in one story about Bob.
One day he had three of his students up in Cripple Creek and they were to interview one of the madams about railroading days. Bob told me that the students found the woman and that she "took good care of us." His eyes flashed as he laughed.
About 1950 Bob wrote a story for the National Geographic about Colorado. In it there is a photo of a family examining the replica made for "A Ticket to Tomahawk". At that time the "train" was still on Reservoir Hill, where Ft. Lewis College is now located. That replica cost $30,000 in 1949. That was a lot of money then, but Richard Saile wanted it to be indistinguishable from the real locomotive. It starred in "Petticoat Junction" and elsewhere. Now it is in Jackson, CA. where it is lettered as the Amador Cannonball.
He was a good friend and an excellent and careful historian. However, one minor point. Bob never did have a doctorate