Re: Salida Barrel Transfer picture

Omahas9000 Wrote:
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> I feel silly, guys, but I don't even know what
> this facility was for, or what it was part of.
> Please, take a minute and fill me in.
>
> Thanks!
>
> John

The Salida barrel transfer (D&RGW called it the rolling transfer) was built in 1924 initially to transfer coal from Crested Butte to standard gauge cars for the CF&I steel mill in Pueblo and the smelters at Leadville.

In 1929, the limestone quarry at Monarch was enlarged and the Monarch branch rebuilt and limestone for the CF&I steel mill was also transferred.

The reason the D&RGW built this facility is that they did not want to have dual gauge track on the main line to Pueblo and Leadville and they did not want to build or purchase new steel drop bottom cars like the EBT. The third rail to Leadville was removed in 1925 shortly after the barrel transfer went operational.

When the Monarch branch was standard gauged in 1956, the barrel transfer was dismantled. The foundtions for it can still be seen next to the tracks south of the depot site.

I will have a history of the D&RGW's Crested Butte branch completed sometime in the next two years and it will include a complete history of the transfer as well as the CF&I coal screening plant that was attached to the barrel transfer.

Jerry Day
Longmont, CO



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/13/2010 07:49PM by Jerry Day.