Re: Como Roster - as of 09/25/19
| September 27, 2019 09:53AM |
Chris Walker Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Stewart
>
> Don't you mean.....The roster shows just how
> polluted Como is with D&RGW rolling stock!
A funny, but true statement. Sadly, when the C&S was scrapped, it was just seen as old junk and no one wanted it. 30 years later when the D&RGW narrow gauge bit the dust, the perception had changed and the equipment became artifacts of the past in need of preservation.(and thankfully so or most of our activity these days would be limited to perusing old photos and whistfully looking at abandoned grades and dreaming of what could be done if only something still existed).
That said, there is a method to the madness in Como; while our main goal is to acquire and restore C&S equipment (as well as any from predecessor roads should such objects suddenly materialize from the mists of time), there just is not enough in existence to do what we would like to do and there are some uses that we would not subject actual C&S cars to even if we had them, thus we look to what is available and that is D&RGW cars. They are Colorado narrow gauge and of the era (the C&S years) that we are striving for in the work in Como.
Examples of the "uses we would not want to subject actual C&S cars to" include the passenger fleet, why modify existing cars or build new ones when perfectly good, and period appropriate, rider cars are available from other entities that no longer need them, thus the two rider boxcars from the C&TS and the two ex Georgetown Loop rider gondolas. Also in this vein is drop bottom gondola 768, we need to store water for No. 4, the tanks look ugly on the ground so the car is a perfect hiding place and it is mobile to boot. The last, and most distasteful (at least to me) is using D&RGW cars as a source of parts to restore C&S cars. Sucks, but sometimes that is what is needed. (then again, really what other use is there for a burned out D&RGW drop bottom gondola?)
As to the other things we would like to accomplish, when it was a working railyard, there were always quite a few cars in Como. While we don't want to over populate Como with a collection of junk that can not be maintained, we would like to have enough cars to at least give a feeling for what was in Como and represent the different types of cars that were in use. As there is no longer such a thing as a C&S flatcar, D&RGW 6302 will fill this void. A D&RGW stock car might even show up to communicate that stockcars once passed through Como. Also, some D&RGW cars (highside gondolas and the occasional stock car) loaded with coal from Baldwin are known to have passed through Como in the mid 1920's, so they are appropriate displays, as well as pollutants!
Jason Midyette
-------------------------------------------------------
> Stewart
>
> Don't you mean.....The roster shows just how
> polluted Como is with D&RGW rolling stock!
A funny, but true statement. Sadly, when the C&S was scrapped, it was just seen as old junk and no one wanted it. 30 years later when the D&RGW narrow gauge bit the dust, the perception had changed and the equipment became artifacts of the past in need of preservation.(and thankfully so or most of our activity these days would be limited to perusing old photos and whistfully looking at abandoned grades and dreaming of what could be done if only something still existed).
That said, there is a method to the madness in Como; while our main goal is to acquire and restore C&S equipment (as well as any from predecessor roads should such objects suddenly materialize from the mists of time), there just is not enough in existence to do what we would like to do and there are some uses that we would not subject actual C&S cars to even if we had them, thus we look to what is available and that is D&RGW cars. They are Colorado narrow gauge and of the era (the C&S years) that we are striving for in the work in Como.
Examples of the "uses we would not want to subject actual C&S cars to" include the passenger fleet, why modify existing cars or build new ones when perfectly good, and period appropriate, rider cars are available from other entities that no longer need them, thus the two rider boxcars from the C&TS and the two ex Georgetown Loop rider gondolas. Also in this vein is drop bottom gondola 768, we need to store water for No. 4, the tanks look ugly on the ground so the car is a perfect hiding place and it is mobile to boot. The last, and most distasteful (at least to me) is using D&RGW cars as a source of parts to restore C&S cars. Sucks, but sometimes that is what is needed. (then again, really what other use is there for a burned out D&RGW drop bottom gondola?)
As to the other things we would like to accomplish, when it was a working railyard, there were always quite a few cars in Como. While we don't want to over populate Como with a collection of junk that can not be maintained, we would like to have enough cars to at least give a feeling for what was in Como and represent the different types of cars that were in use. As there is no longer such a thing as a C&S flatcar, D&RGW 6302 will fill this void. A D&RGW stock car might even show up to communicate that stockcars once passed through Como. Also, some D&RGW cars (highside gondolas and the occasional stock car) loaded with coal from Baldwin are known to have passed through Como in the mid 1920's, so they are appropriate displays, as well as pollutants!
Jason Midyette
Sorry, only registered users may post in this forum.
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.