Re: Durango " Horse Gulch Short Line" spur to City Mine?
| January 01, 2017 07:56PM |
Part II
Before Sonic Drive-In was built, the area was a Shell service station. In this 1930s/1940s (not sure which decade as I have seen this photo referred as being in both) Sanborn photo this area is a gas station and you can see that something has “disturbed” the ground and was angled across the bottom of the photograph above the billboards. The RR valuation map shows the ROW in this general area on it’s way to the Gold King loading tipple located roughly near the corner of 4th St. and 9th Ave.
Here are two photos with slightly different angles that I took from 2004 to be compared with a labeled Gold King Tipple photo, followed by the current Google street view… Note the telegraph poles in ALL of the photos.
Recent Google street shot...
I never found anything at the mine other than tailings. It appeared that there were several tunnels… Along the ROW of the tram line there were a few telegraph poles and a few ties left. It appeared that the track was 3 foot gauge. MAYBE this is why on the USGS map it looked like the RR continued up the side of the mountain…
Conclusion from all this “on a whim” exploration…
Wish I could find a valuation map and more pictures of the tipple area…
Wish I could find a photograph of the mine itself…
Sure would make an interesting little model…
At the mine site going up the side of the coal shale hill in 4 wheel drive, from the Horse Gulch road up to where the tram located, while listening to Joe Walsh sing out “Life’s Been Good” wasn’t the smartest thing to do in a CJ5… I made it okay, but I had to wash my shorts twice…
I have never found much information on this operation. Gives a lot of room for speculation on the day to day routine. And PLEASE, If any one can add to my story, PLEASE DO! I am by no means an expert, I’m just reporting to what I stumbled upon as a kid and young adult… And remembering while I still can… Hey, life’s been good!
The Sundance RGS Volume XI book about Durango is a excellent read, including information about another tram line just west of the Smelter, the coal fields in the region as well as the standard gauge “Red Apple” line to Farmington, the latter researched and written by W. George Cook. Check it out! We now return you to your regular programming…
B.T.W. HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Before Sonic Drive-In was built, the area was a Shell service station. In this 1930s/1940s (not sure which decade as I have seen this photo referred as being in both) Sanborn photo this area is a gas station and you can see that something has “disturbed” the ground and was angled across the bottom of the photograph above the billboards. The RR valuation map shows the ROW in this general area on it’s way to the Gold King loading tipple located roughly near the corner of 4th St. and 9th Ave.
Here are two photos with slightly different angles that I took from 2004 to be compared with a labeled Gold King Tipple photo, followed by the current Google street view… Note the telegraph poles in ALL of the photos.
Recent Google street shot...
I never found anything at the mine other than tailings. It appeared that there were several tunnels… Along the ROW of the tram line there were a few telegraph poles and a few ties left. It appeared that the track was 3 foot gauge. MAYBE this is why on the USGS map it looked like the RR continued up the side of the mountain…
Conclusion from all this “on a whim” exploration…
Wish I could find a valuation map and more pictures of the tipple area…
Wish I could find a photograph of the mine itself…
Sure would make an interesting little model…
At the mine site going up the side of the coal shale hill in 4 wheel drive, from the Horse Gulch road up to where the tram located, while listening to Joe Walsh sing out “Life’s Been Good” wasn’t the smartest thing to do in a CJ5… I made it okay, but I had to wash my shorts twice…
I have never found much information on this operation. Gives a lot of room for speculation on the day to day routine. And PLEASE, If any one can add to my story, PLEASE DO! I am by no means an expert, I’m just reporting to what I stumbled upon as a kid and young adult… And remembering while I still can… Hey, life’s been good!
The Sundance RGS Volume XI book about Durango is a excellent read, including information about another tram line just west of the Smelter, the coal fields in the region as well as the standard gauge “Red Apple” line to Farmington, the latter researched and written by W. George Cook. Check it out! We now return you to your regular programming…
B.T.W. HAPPY NEW YEAR!
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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.