Re: Happy Ending
| April 20, 2010 10:16AM |
> While we're at it, anybody have information on cab
> curtains?
I searched for drawings or info on the classification flags with no luck. I suspect the same will be true of the cab curtains.
When it comes to finding drawings, several factors come into play.
1. The D&RGW did not always make drawings. The item being produced was generic enough that a drawing was not needed.
2. A drawing was made but destroyed at some point in time.
3. A drawing was made and is in the possession of one of the museums, but not all in one place. Sometimes the museums do not have complete inventories, so it is a matter of searching.
4. A drawing was made and it is in the hands of a private collector and unavailable.
A friend asked my help in finding drawings of the D&RGW lighted number boards (the ones on each side of the stack). I have not been able to find a drawing of this item. The Colorado RR Museum had one on display, but it has been taken out of the display area and put in storage in one of the many railroad cars at the museum. I have not been able to find it and no one seems to know where it is.
So for all the readers of this list who think everything is online, free, and immediately available, sorry to tell you that is not the case. Finding some of this stuff is time consuming, costly, and frustrating at times.
I also think people do not have a good concept of just how much material exists. A friend and I estimated that it would take a person 8 hours a day, 5 days a week for more than ten years to scan all the documents, drawings, photos, etc. at the Colorado RR Museum library.
The Denver Library Western History Colletion has more than 25,000 D&RGW drawings and none of them have been scanned and they have no plans to do so. The Colorado Historical Society has been working to get Colorado newspapers online and after years of scanning, they have hardly made a dent in the available papers.
It sounds like a bleak picture (and it is). With cuts in funding at the state and local levels, it is unlikely that much progress will be made in getting this material online in the near future.
Jerry Day
Longmont, CO
> curtains?
I searched for drawings or info on the classification flags with no luck. I suspect the same will be true of the cab curtains.
When it comes to finding drawings, several factors come into play.
1. The D&RGW did not always make drawings. The item being produced was generic enough that a drawing was not needed.
2. A drawing was made but destroyed at some point in time.
3. A drawing was made and is in the possession of one of the museums, but not all in one place. Sometimes the museums do not have complete inventories, so it is a matter of searching.
4. A drawing was made and it is in the hands of a private collector and unavailable.
A friend asked my help in finding drawings of the D&RGW lighted number boards (the ones on each side of the stack). I have not been able to find a drawing of this item. The Colorado RR Museum had one on display, but it has been taken out of the display area and put in storage in one of the many railroad cars at the museum. I have not been able to find it and no one seems to know where it is.
So for all the readers of this list who think everything is online, free, and immediately available, sorry to tell you that is not the case. Finding some of this stuff is time consuming, costly, and frustrating at times.
I also think people do not have a good concept of just how much material exists. A friend and I estimated that it would take a person 8 hours a day, 5 days a week for more than ten years to scan all the documents, drawings, photos, etc. at the Colorado RR Museum library.
The Denver Library Western History Colletion has more than 25,000 D&RGW drawings and none of them have been scanned and they have no plans to do so. The Colorado Historical Society has been working to get Colorado newspapers online and after years of scanning, they have hardly made a dent in the available papers.
It sounds like a bleak picture (and it is). With cuts in funding at the state and local levels, it is unlikely that much progress will be made in getting this material online in the near future.
Jerry Day
Longmont, CO
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488 stops for water at Los Pinos tank on closing day Oct. 1979. Photo courtesy Don Richter
The NGDF was started by Don Richter and is currently operated in his memory by Nathan Holmes and others. Others who have contributed to the upkeep of this board are (in no particular order): Charles McCandless, Everett Lueck, Ted Wilton, Cole Adams, James Bane, John Moellmer, Jon Bentz, Linn Moedinger, lloyd lehrer, Rod Jensen, John Craft, Steven Forney, Herb Kelsey, Bill Ramaley, Russ Sperry (El Russo Loco), Josh McNeal, John West, Jim Armstrong, Bob Bergstrom, Greg Scholl, Blake Forbes Doug van Veelen and Mark Fuller.