Sooo, now seems like a good time for a few corrections.
sunsetlimited Wrote:
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>... The current table that's in the pit is the 1910
> table that was removed in 1938...
The early turntable (pre-1910) can be distinguished from the later (post-1910) turntable by the spacing between the center vertical pieces of angle riveted to the sides. The original had a much narrower spacing. The later one had a wider spacing, but two rows of rivets apparently attaching the internal framework about where the angles were on the earlier table. The table that's in the pit now matches the early table, not the later one. To my knowledge, nobody has seen any documentation that it is the same turntable, but the from the timing, it seems likely. I understand that the City and County of Denver shop building that had the girders from the two turntables was build in the 1910s (I don't know this for a fact), shortly after the original bridge was removed. So, this may or may not have been the original turntable bridge, but it definitely was not the later 1910 table.
> ...In the 1960's the building was
> torn down and somebody recognized them as being
> important and railroad related and they were sent
> to the Georgetown loop Railroad...
I understand that it was Ed Gerlitz (who I believe was an officer of the CHS at the time) who recognized the turntable bridge girders, and that he saw them before the building was torn down,and was able to negotiate their sale or donation when the building was razed.
> ...At that time the powers that be still
> wanted to rebuild the turntable and engine house
> in Georgetown...
The plan had simple been to install a turntable at each end of the line. To my knowledge, there was never a plan to build an engine house in Georgetown, and while there may have been a small one at the wye on the east end of Georgetown very early on the original Colorado Central, Georgetown did not have an engine house during most of its railroad history to rebuild.
> ...Sometime along the way, what
> is believed to be the Georgetown turntable's
> sideframes made its way back to Georgetown. The
> Seabees put both turntables back together to be
> used as bridges on the railroad. The Georgetown
> table was used as the cleverly named turntable
> bridge...
There were two 50-foot turntable bridges taken from the building in Denver. One was to be used on each end of the Georgetown Loop. The one now in Como had a rounded bottom while the other was pointed (I do not know where that one came from). The "Turntable Bridge" is a different bridge, which had been installed on the original railroad to replace the original wood truss bridge. When the Loop was rebuilt, the original bridge was located near Fort Logan. Refer to page 171 of
Georgetown and the Loop by Griswold, Kindig, & Trombly. The two bridges that were reassembeld by the Seabees sat in the Silver Plume yards for many years after the new Georgetown Loop was completed, until they were in the way of the construction of the engine house in Silver Plume. A local contractor (Jerry Buckley) was contracted to remove all of the scrap, including these bridges. Mr. Buckley moved them to a property of his at the base of the dam below Georgetown. Bill Kazel arranged to buy the one that matched the original Como turntable. I don't know what happened to the other. It may still be below the dam.
>...By this time the Como roundhouse had
> been bought by Bill Kazel and he and the
> aforementioned scrapper spent many years arguing
> over the price until they came to an agreement and
> the Como turntable returned to from whence it
> came...
My recollection is that Bill Kazel approached Jerry Buckley to buy it, but he was not interested in selling it. Eventually, Mr. Buckley was in need of some fast cash to fix some heavy equipment to finish a job so he could get paid, and contacted Bill to see if he was still interested. One condition was that Mr. Buckley would deliver it to Como, but he kept delaying and eventually started burying both bridges with waste dirt from construction of a power plant he was building, and Bill had some trucks passing by carrying equipment for a project he was working on, and just picked it up on his own and brought it to Como.
Todd Hackett
Como Roundhouse, Depot, Track...
Caretaker of various things at various times
Customer at Caboose Hobbies
Colorado School of Mines BS Engineering May 1985
Wearer of Many Hats (but not all at once) to keep my bald scalp from getting sunburned
