Re: G, B &L 1020

The car is former Denver & Rio Grande Western high side gondola 1020, built by American Car & Foundry in 1902, rebuilt by the D&RGW in Alamosa in late 1925. The car remained in service until the end of D&RGW freight operations in 1968 and was sold to a scrapper in Alamosa around 1970. Lindsey Ashby bought it from the scrapper around 1970-71 and moved the car to Central City Colorado on the Colorado Central Tourist railroad. I don't think that the car was ever really used on the CC (some one correct me if I am wrong) and it was moved to the Georgetown Loop in 1981 after the CC shutdown.

By 1988, No. 1020 had assumed its present form as a passenger car with platform steps in opposite corners and was in regular service on the Georgetown Loop. The GB&L (Georgetown Breckenridge & Leadville) lettering was applied at the Loop, at one point all of their cars were lettered as such. For at least the last 6 years of the Ashby's operation of the Loop, No. 1020 was in the train everyday. The car left the Loop at the end of 2004 and went to the Colorado Railroad Museum where it stayed until 2014 or 2015 when it was purchased by the current operator of the Georgetown Loop (Historic Railroad Adventures) and brought back to Silver Plume.

At Como, the car will retain its GB&L lettering and paint scheme as the current owner wishes to preserve it as a Georgetown Loop passenger car.


Shay 14, GB&L rider gondola 1020, D&RGW boxcar 3670 and RGS caboose 0400 pose on the High Bridge, September 1988

Jason Midyette