"Along the Blue" #24 | 1 Comments - Click Here :

Occurring 110 years ago today:

Breckenridge Bulletin; Jan 3, 1903
Engineer Dan Williams Killed.
    Early on Monday morning December 31st, word was brought to town by Conductor G.W. Miller, of the 4 o'clock a.m. train, that there was a wreck of his train at Pittsburgh switch, about four miles from town.
    On the return of the engine which had helped the wrecked train over the range and had gone ahead to Dickey, Coroner Condon had a jury of six citizens summoned.  They went on the 11:30 train and viewed the remains and wreck and heard the evidence of Conductor Miller and Brakemen C.J. Selby and S.S. Cheney, whose testimony varied but little from the following statement:
    About 3:50 a.m. the train was moving downgrade at a rate of from ten to thirteen miles an hour. The two Brakemen were on the fifth car from the engine and heard and felt no jar or other collision, greater than the breaking apart of the train.Thinking that had happened, they and the conductor went forward and found the engine No. 47, tender and three cars in a wreck with the engine on its right side, lying flat and the left side engine going like lightning, letting steam escape.
    The Conductor and one of the Brakemen stepped on the tender trucks and saw the fireman, Frank Young, coming out between the tank and trucks, badly scalded and bruised up. They assisted him to the passenger car and returned going around the engine found that engineer, Dan Williams had crawled out between the cab and tender, having been scalded from head to foot. He asked them to get him out of there as quickly as they could, which they did. Getting him to the car as quickly as they could, he only lived about two hours, his injuries covered his whole body.
    The jury examined the track, and there seemed to be no spreading or other thing wrong with the track, and the witnesses said in their evidence that these accidents are wholly unexplainable and apparently unavoidable and will be as long as cars run on two trucks. After gathering the information, the train returned to town with the jury, coroner and passengers, and the jury being in consultation at 3:30 in the afternoon agreed upon a verdict of said accident, occurred from causes unknown to this jury.
    The train from east and west transferred their passengers and express in the afternoon, and the body of the dead Engineer was brought to town and turned over to Undertakers Huntress & Rogers, for preparation for burial.
    The deceased, Daniel Williams, was a widower and it has not been known whether he has any children living or not. He was a member of the order of Elks, and will probably be looked after by that order.

Conductor Miller and Dr. Condon??

Maureen Nicholls

Cab Curtains | 22 Comments - Click Here :

       I was gonna wait and post about the locomotive I've been working on once it was finished. It just needs a few more details and weathering before I can call it completed. But I'm pretty pleased with how well the cab curtains turned out, and felt I should share it!
    One thing that really bugs me about most imported brass models, is that the cab doors are usually modeled closed. To help hide this, I followed an article by Chad M. Zentz in Model Railroad Hobbyist Magazine, in which he used tea bags to represent canvas cab curtains. Here is the link to the article: http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/magazine/mrh-2011-11-nov/teabag-cab-curtains .
   I also used the tea bag material for the cab shades. I finished my curtains and shades with a lite wash of Soviet Green and India ink. I'm sure I will think of other uses for this material.
   For you tea lovers; I even drank the tea while I was making these! They are a great little detail to add, and the engine crew will appreciate them come winter in the Rocky Mountains.

"Along the Blue" #23 | 0 Comments - Click Here :

Have A Blessed Christmas Everyone!

Ten Mile Range & Blue River, Col. 1917

Library of Congress Photo

Scale Ruler App | 2 Comments - Click Here :

Here is the link to the Scale Ruler App for the iPhone mentioned in a previous post: 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/scale-ruler/id305581827?mt=8

It is also located in the App Store on your iPhone.

Fremont Pass Continued | 0 Comments - Click Here :

Remains of the turntable and lead track at Climax, circa 1930's.

Poole Collection

First Dickey Structure | 6 Comments - Click Here :

    Alright... so it's not really a structure per-say, but it did take only 30 minutes of work!

    I was at the local antique mall last week and came across a box full of of old HO junk. You know... the kind of stuff we all remember building in our youth. In it, I found the remains of a built-up HO water tank. I had been thinking of using a roof from one of these as the basis for the well/cistern located behind the pump house. Its going to sit along the rear of the layout, so it doesn't have to be super detailed. I whipped out my handy dandy scale ruler mobile app for my iPhone; and viola, it measured 12' in diameter in S scale; the exact size of the Dickey well. Although over-priced, I ponied up the $3.

Before

    One man's trash is another man's treasure. I cut it down, framed the edges, painted the roof, and wrapped it with a couple rows of random stone from Chooch.

After

 I then cut a hole in the foam surface and inserted the new cistern into its location behind the pump house. A little ground cover and it will blend right in.

Well... that was way too easy. Everything else on the layout now needs to be scratch-built. I can't wait!
~ Cowboy Up!

Fremont Pass Engine House | 4 Comments - Click Here :

    To the west of Dickey, is Fremont Pass. About 20 years ago I purchased the enlarged print below from the Denver Public Library (the original is now available online). It shows the only known photo (unless more have surfaced in the last 20 years) of the engine house and enclosed turntable located at the summit (aka Climax). Click on the picture to enlarge.

    It appears to be very similar in design to the ones located atop Boreas Pass and the Alpine Tunnel, except for it being constructed of wood as opposed to native stone. Records do exist stating that this structure burned down in 1907. But other than that, no other information.

    If any more photos or information have come to light of which I have missed or forgot about, I would be interested in hearing from you.