Often over looked in what freight was carried in the late 50s was what was happening in Silverton starting in 1959. Standard Uranium reopened the Sunnyside Mine by drilling a two mile long tunnel from Gladstone in under the old Sunnyside workings. In 1959, 60, and into 61 the mine shipped in about 200 car loads of material by narrow gauge for the mine reopening. This is all documented in the ICC final report on the Silverton branch abandonment procedings that the D&RGW started in 1959 to sell the Silverton Branch to the White Foundation.
Knowing that the Sunnyside would start actual mining and milling of ore, the Rio Grande cut a deal with them to offer the same narrow gauge rate for shipping if the cons were trucked to Ridgway for shipment on the standard gauge. The Rio Grande Motorway handled that early traffic and later it was run up to the end by C. B. Johnson Co. Motorway also hauled concentrates from Telluride and the Idarado Mine to Ridgway, and again, that traffic ended up with C.B. Johnson.
I had a chat with Marvin Voehringer this morning who had the contract both in Ridgway and Montrose to handle the loading of the cons from the Sunnyside up to the closing of the mine in 1991. He said that the typical standard gauge traffic all the years he worked it each week was 6 to 9 gondolas filled with zinc cons, and 3 to 5 boxcars loaded with lead cons. The lead went to Canada for smelting. He said Idarado's tonnage was substantially higher and that traffic ceased in 1978. Traffic would vary according to the type, quality, and quantity of ore being mined, but these were typical loadings on the standard gauge. What traffic this would have been on the narrow gauge is interesting to speculate, but the potential of having a new, and substantial year round shipper develop on the narrow gauge out of Silverton must have sent shivvers through management in that gray building on Stout Street in Denver. The transfer of freight traffic to Motorways helped pull as many spikes as anything else that I can see.
Marvin transported the gold, about 99% pure, in gallon paint cans, on his mail truck from the Silverton Post Office. He said some shipments had to be held at the post office because the value exceeded what he was allowed to carry. We all knew what was in those cans when they would be carried into the post office for mailing, but it wasn't talked about much. Marvin still hauls Silverton's mail.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/14/2010 02:25AM by Fritz Klinke.
