Re: Sunset Boxcar

weston1879 Wrote:
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> Take a look at DPL photo CHS B-221.Any ideas as to
> the ancestry of car #4-the one where the door
> opening has been boarded up

God I love researching railroads in Colorado! Sometimes I guess don't always believe what you read because as Todd had stated that the C&NW had acquired quite a few old cars from the UPD&G and DL&G during the first year until the time when they received their own new cars from back east. Forest Crossen also says this on page 319 in the book The Switzerland Trail Of America. That might be so but I am pretty sure that the 4 car bodies at Sunset were left behind by the GSL&P as they were "stranded" at that location because of the 1894 flood and never rolled to Sunset on the C&NW. THE C&NW only acquired the cars at Sunset because they were on the ROW that was the GSL&P.
1) Just look at the Buckwalter image that Weston1879 found from DPL which the call number is CHS-B221. It is the winter (no leaves on the Aspens) of 1898 and the C&NW has not laid a rail to Sunset yet, but the grade almost complete is in place minus the bridges and ties are stockpiled where soon the wye and depot will soon be.
2) Notice that cars 1 and 2 are not in line with each other and that car 2 (24152/608 is actually east and north of the shorter CC car with the lean-to attached and will soon be moved as seen in the first 2 images below. Car 2 is most likely still on the old GSL&P mainline grade but will have to be moved to make room for a place to dump waste rock from the cuts on the line to Ward.
3) If these cars were acquired by the C&NW they would have to be hauled in by horse which is unlikely and in the early images of the C&NW around 1898 these cars look lived in with the windows that were added and with the lean-tos. Also cars 1 and are off the new grade of the C&NW in if they were rolled in on the new grade wouldn't they be placed more even in elevation and parallel?

I believe it is a great possibility that car 1 with the lean-to is former CC Box outfit/way car 026552 in which there are numerous photographs of this unique car on the GSL&P. Compare the first image to the fourth image below.

To answer the quote at the top of the page it looks car 4 is a 24', 24,000 lb. capacity Colorado Central boxcar of around a circa 1881 vintage and is similar to car 026552 and the boxcar behind it in the fouth image and below. The 1885 CC numbers for this class of cars were 26531-26600. Notice the rounded end fascia which is typical to UP Omaha built car and is similar to other UP built NG cars that were built for the DSP&P, UN and KC. This class of CC cars were taller and had a higher ceiling than earlier CC boxcars and were more ideal to "live in" and can be seen in the third image below. One of these cars (cars 1 or 4) survived at Sunset until around 1960 as there is a photograph of the link and pin draft bar on page 311 of The Switzerland Trail Of America. I wonder if this piece of iron survived as the car body did not? Might be someone's doorstop in Boulder?

To answer Weston1879 question that started this thread on page 319 of The Switzerland Trail Of America is says that this was DSP&P car 24268 or car 3 and was destroyed in 1961. In DPL's online image MCC-231 it looks like this car body was moved farther east to right next to the depot. Was this done when construction was begun on the line to Eldora in 1904?

Don't believe everything you read because there is another error on page 334 of said book that says the car at Cardinal was a old CC car and we know that this car is DSP&P 608/24152 that is preserved today in the Como roundhouse. I believe that weston1879's thread and CHS-B221 changes what was thought to be the history behind DSP&P 608. It would be great to see the photograph or how Todd concluded that car 2's (608) 1885 numbering is 24152.











Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/29/2012 01:53AM by Jeff Ramsey.