The next tool shed body was an early 1870's vintage RPO/Express car...


The coal chute was in a state of un-arrested decay with the fold-down chutes for the tenders laying on the ground. The fans had thoroughly combed the area and there was not one spike to be seen. I did find a couple of nice lumps of RGS coal to be used in the tenders of my HOn3 RGS power.


Vance Junction was a place that should have been preserved in some way. Later in the 1980's Bob Shank came along and removed all the car bodies to his place in Durango and later to the Colorado RR Museum (are they still there?). In my opinon they should have been left here and stabilized to prevent their further decay. They made a much more impressive artifact when they were still in their natural location, not out in Golden where they are just another rotten old car body. I made a walk into Vance about 10 years ago. It was all "cleaned up". What a disappointment.

Here the mainline grade heads out of Vance toward Ophir..


A bit further along the road past Ilium is the remains of the tender of RGS 19. In 1919 or so 19 ran away down the 4% grade of Keystone Hill coming down the Telluride Branch. The engine and tender left the rails and rolled several 100 feet down the mountainside, coming to a rest here. While #19 itself was salvaged, it was felt the tender tank was too far gone to bother with.




Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/09/2016 11:15PM by Earl.