Today I am so sad to report about the deliberate destruction of Denver & Rio Grande Railway "flat roofed" mail car 6. There were numerous justifications presented to the board of the trustees of Colorado Railroad Historical Foundation, Inc. of the liability and/for the disposal of this deteriorated carbody from the collection. Of the 11 trustees only 2 voted for the preservation of this item in the collection. D&RG # 6 was built by the Billmeyer & Small Co. in 1880 for the ownership of C.R.S. Trust series A. In 1885 the D&RGRy renumbered this mail & baggage car to baggage, mail and express car # 55. In March of 1891 the D&RGRR sold the 55 to the Rio Grande Southern Railroad as their mail, baggage and express car # 150. In 1904 this car was sent out at Vance Junction as a wayside structure. The carbody was saved by Bob Shank from the USFS and later acquired by the CRHF (CRRM) in July of 1984. In 2012 most of the surviving iron parts where salvaged, as were the near pristine center and intermediate sills of this car body with 2 of the sills being salvaged in the restoration of Colorado & Southern refrigerater car # 1113. Some pieces of original "Wood" material were privately saved for future academic and scholarly study...
Into the roll-a-way dumster the spliters went.
D&RGRR sister mail car 56 from the 55 circa 1887 at Denver Union Depot.