Doug:
Leadville had three railroads and two gauges...the D&RG, C&S, and CM. The D&RG and C&S both had dual gauge and I think some of the CM interchange tracks were dual gauge. C&S narrow gauge cars were taken down to the smelter on the D&RG dual gauge as late as 1940. There was dual gauge from Salida to Leadville as late as 1925. A D&RGW depot agent remembered doing way bills on C&S narrow gauge cars at Crested Butte as late as 23 and 24. They were being loaded with anthracite coal for a smelter at Kokomo on the C&S east of Leadville.
Sure was an interesting place. One day in 1899, there were four or five rotary plows in Leadville on the same day. The C&S narrow gauge rotary was in from Como. The D&RG had rotary ON in from working on the Ibex or Blue River branch and rotary 070 in from Tennessee Pass. The CM had two of their rotary plows in (one of them might have been a Jull). Don't know of any other place where that happened.
There were times where both the C&S and D&RG had narrow gauge rotary plow in operation on Fremont Pass. One of Norwood's new books has shots of a rotary in operation on Fremont. Norwood says it is a D&RG rotary, but if you look closely, you will see it is the C&S (design of the plow and the C&S 4 wheel caboose on the train).
Following gives you a feel for operations out of Leadville..
Leadville
February 2, 1914, Monday
Leadville continue yesterday under the grip of the cold snap of the week with the mercury registering 16 degrees below zero. A high wind accompanied this drop in temperature drifting snow everywhere, blocking the Ibex branch, snowing in three engines and a rotary snow plow on the narrow gauge line of the D&RG railway leading to the hill mines.
