I had a doctor's appointment this morning in Ridgway, so stopped by to say hello to an old friend, outfit car 04914. This car was sold recently by the D&S as part of their Railfest car auction, and it is now in Ridgway, with a temporary roof replacing the old, badly rotten original.
This car sat for some years at Gato/Pagosa Junction on a short piece of track, and as I understand the story, was used as a temporary station at one point. In the early 1960s, the D&RGW put out an order that the car was to be burned in place, and the scrap iron retrieved for salvage. Conductor Punk Blackstone heard of this and purchased the car from the railroad for $50, which was the going disposal price for car bodies.
Punk then arranged for the car to get back on the siding, and on one of his trips through with a freight train, they chained the car to the tail end of the caboose and pulled it into Durango. It was placed next to the car shop and sat right in front of the 464 for a number of years. A railfan friend of mine, Roger Cook (who has written several rail books with Karl Zimmermann) was talking to Punk one day, and the car was offered to Roger for $250 as Punk's original plan to use the 04914 as a storage shed proved too difficult. Roger was as poor as I was then, so he included me in the sale, and for $125 each, we became owners of the 04914. This happened in 1967.
Then we conspired with various railroad folk to get the car moved to Silverton. At that time, it was complete with airbrake equipment, brake shoes, air hoses, stove, etc. Jack Rentfrow, the Roadmaster/Traimaster in Durango, was working on getting it onto a work train, but retired before that transpired. Then Jim Meyer and others would offer help, but one plan after another ran into problems, visiting brass from Denver, etc to delay any action. Along comes Bradshaw, and it was made known to him about the car, and he would kid me about the demurrage it was racking up sitting on his property, but he acknowledged that at least one thing on the property was not his.
Then Al Harper buys the line, and again the ownership was pointed out to him and by then, the car had been moved to the south storage yard and slumbered next to a row of trees that was trying to grow into the cars. Again, discussion ensued about getting the car to Silverton, but nothing materialized. Then on this list, I saw the notice of the auction and emailed Paul Schranck at the railroad and asked if my car had been included in the sale, by some chance. I was busy, so was he, and then all of a sudden, I see the list of cars sold and there was my old friend, the 04914 with a new owner.
I hit Paul up about his sale on an inspection trip into see the Needleton water tank after Railfest, and he was very apologetic about what happened, but I said realistically, the car was being saved by some people who could care for it and Ridgway is closer than Durango. I have been offered a replacement car, so I've always lusted, after a fashion, for a drop bottom gondola, so maybe my stuffed shirt neighbor will have something new to gaze at in my back yard.
This car has a continuous draft gear and wheels cast at the Fort Dodge Iowa something or another. It may be the sole surviving example of the continuous draft gear car around--that I'm not sure about.
