Re: K-27 Question

There was not much traffic on the Orient branch after the CF&I began to get iron ore from a mine in Wyoming. The Valley freights from Salida to Alamosa would switch the branch from Villa Grove. There was no traffic on the branch from 1935 until it was abandoned in 41. When the D&RGW decided to scrap the branch, they found the last run in 35 had left a high side gon of coal for the watchman. They wanted to bring it down to Villa Grove, but the track was too bad to risk an engine going up there. So they sent a crew up there and they got the car down by gravity and hand brakes. The account said that trees that had grown up on the track helped to slow the car down.