Fritz Klinke Wrote:
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> One of the "heros" in Durango from the late 60s on
> was the trainmaster, Jack Rentfrow. His entire
> career was in D&RGW management with most or all of
> it on the narrow gauge. I got to know him quite
> well and despite his gruff demeanor and Denver
> attitude, at least on the surface, he cared deeply
> for the narrow gauge. When the scrapping got
> started, he had been allowed only a handful of
> cars other than passenger to keep the Silverton
> line operating. He took it on himself to rescue a
> number of cars he thought necessary for the
> operation and removed them to safe places on the
> line. That's why there are (sort of were) a lot of
> freight cars that survived the scrapper. When told
> to replace the harp switch stand at Elk Park, it
> went to his living room at home and when his wife
> decreed that it was no longer welcome, Jack drove
> it up to Silverton and donated it to our museum.
>
> One time I hiked down to Elk Park through the
> slides to take pictures of the first work train in
> April and asked Jack for a ride back up to the
> first slide. In typical company manner, he replied
> that company rules forbade that to happen, so I
> started the long hike back to the Snowshed Slide.
> After about 10 minutes, a motor car appeared and
> stopped next to me and the operator said that Jack
> had sent him back to pick me up. The people in the
> 70s cared very deeply about the Silverton branch,
> and people like Jack kept the boys from Denver at
> bay while doing his best to keep things running.
> And he was a company man on the surface but had
> his heart in his railroad.
>
> The company policy changed abruptly after the 1970
> flood. Gus Aydelott, the D&RGW president, came to
> Durango and addressed the community at a meeting
> at the Strater Hotel that I attended. He stated
> that they would rebuild the flood damage but only
> this one time, that the branch was for sale, and
> if we wanted to see it to continue running, "we"
> had best do something about it. It took 10 years
> for Charlie Bradshaw to surface and start the
> purchase, but for those years from 1970, and they
> had 3 engines, they did quite well. Jack retired
> on the last day of D&RGW ownership of the
> Silverton branch. My best picture of Jack:
> [
flic.kr]
Fritz thank you for this story and first hand account of how it really was during that time. Jack sounded like an all around great guy like most folks I come in contact with who are narrow gaugers!
William
aka drgwk37
