Monday, August 18, 2014

C&S Chalk Creek Branch | 15 Comments - Click Here :



    Because we can always learn from the work of others, any and all C&S modeling is welcome on this blog regardless of scale (besides, there are probably only five of us modeling in Sn3!). I recently received the note below from On3 modeler Randy Rieck, and I thought I'd share it with you. He sent along some pictures of his in-progress layout too. Thanks for sharing Randy!

Darel,
    Your C&Sn3 blog is great. The topics covered by the contributors have increased my C&S and modeling knowledge. I am working on an On3 layout of the C&S Chalk Creek Branch after 1915. 
    Here (below) are a series of pictures my friend and fellow modeler Bob Boorman took prior to his moving to Texas earlier this summer. 
    If Roper believes any of the pictures have merit, and are appropriate for inclusion in your
blog, please use them.
Keep on modeling!
Randy Rieck


























15 Comments - Click Here :
  1. Superb and inspiring work! Give us more.
    Thanks,
    Bob Stears

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  2. Randy, the layout is looking great. Last time I saw it there were very few buildings. Now all of the stations are readily recognizable. Great scene of Romley and I see you managed to include the Golf Mill. I love the rolling stock! I think No. 62 is my most favorite part - but it's all good. Great Morley Bridge across Pomroy Gulch and the pair of strain beams near Mt. Princeton.

    I an glad to see you aree still at it. Makes everything worthwhile when we can help other modelers out.

    I hear from Bob ever once in awhile - LOL - he called me a sniviling bed-wetter once! I considered it an honor!

    Derrell

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  3. Definitely looks good. Much farther along than either of mine!

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  4. Could you please include a layout map?

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    1. Thanks for your interest! Looking through my files I found a 10 year old conceptual track plan. The 1918 valuation maps were used to define the track arrangement for each station. The stations included are Buena Vista, Macune, Nathrop, Mt. Princeton, St. Elmo, Golf, and Romley. The plan evolved a bit during the transfer of the plan to the bench work as space limitation became more clear. A little selective compression was needed to make it fit. The plan was transferred using spline on top of the cross members. I will try to conform the conceptual plan to the actual layout and clean it up. When it is complete, I will send it to Darel for posting.

      Randy

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  5. Randy, thanks for posting the pix! Beautiful and inspiring work! If you could tell us more about what you are doing that would be outstanding.

    Thanks,
    Bill

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    1. Bill,
      See Randy's reply to Robert above. Thanks for the information Randy. Looking forward to the track plan.
      Darel

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    2. Thanks for the question. My prior layout, the Eldora and Lost Lake, was built in HOn3 and operated between 1984 and 2005. This was a might have been narrow gauge railroad connecting with the Colorado and Northwestern at Eldora, Colorado. The railroad ran west for 6 miles to the gold mining camp of Lost Lake. Everything about the railroad was imagined.
      For the current layout, I wanted to model in On3 an actual Colorado narrow gauge railroad in as much detail as possible to including equipment, right of way and related buildings. The Chalk Creek Branch of the C&S first came to my attention in 1974 when the South Park Line was published by the Colorado Railroad Museum. The isolated branch resulted from the closure of the Alpine Tunnel in 1910 and the washing out of Trout Creek Canyon a few years later, leaving 29 miles of track from Buena Vista to Romley an isolated branch. No yards, only one engine on the property at a time, and all cars interchanged with the D&RG at Buena Vista and sometimes at Nathrop, make it ideal for a small C&S layout. In 1915 the turntable from Gunnison was moved to Romley. The trains were very short, 1 to 4 cars and ran on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. On the down side, I think there are only a few original structures left: the Buena Vista station, the remains of the 2 outfit cars at St. Elmo, the bridge at Romley, the lower cable tram building at Romley and several stone bridge abutments at other places. The branch was not often photographed and there are only a few plans. Darrel Poole has shared pictures from his collection which have been useful. The design of the structures on the layout are often my best guess. My wife and I have vacationed a few days each fall in Chalk Creek Canyon for 20 years. During that time, we have driven, biked and hiked to the east portal of Alpine Tunnel and all along the railroad grade gathering information. This winter I hope to start building scenery. We'll see. I hope this gives some idea of what I am trying to do.

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    3. Do you have a copy of the original hardcover edition of Margaret Coel's Goin Railroading? It has several pictures of the line from B.V. to Romley during your time frame.One other book is Memories of St.Elmo by Charlotte Merrifield,who grew up in St.Elmo during the Teens and Twenties several pictures and tales of life in the mining camp.People to contact would be Dan and Pat Windolph who live in the Chalk Creek area at least part of the year ,Cliff Mestel,who runs BK Enterprises and lives in Johnsons Village,and Ken Gracyzk who lives in B.V. and does research on South Park RR and local history

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    4. There is a picture of the mine office and station on p.8 of Merrifield's book

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    5. There are 5 photos of Romley taken in the Teens and Twenties in the Photos section of the DSP-P Yahoo Group.One shows the back side of the Mine office.When you are vacationing in Colorado in South Park RR areas check in stores for some of the small paperback historical picture books with local info in them

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    6. You are well versed on information sources relating to the C&S in Chalk Creek. Margaret Coel's book is one of my favorites. It gives real insight into how the branch operated. In 1990 after a presentation at the Colorado State Historical Society, Mrs. Coel very graciously agreed to make copies of pictures from the Speas collection for me. She is a very nice lady. Over the years, I have been fortunate to have visited with the other people you mentioned with the exception of Ken Gracyzk They were all very helpful!
      Other books you might find interesting are Buena Vista! by Judy Porrata, From Gold to Ghosts - A History of St. Elmo, Colorado by Peter Anderson, and St. Elmo, Colorado: The Little Mining Camp That Tried by Lawrence Von Bamford and Kenneth R. Tremblay, Jr. published in Colorado Heritage - Spring 2000. Thanks for your suggestions. Randy

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  6. Theres a good photo of the C&S Romley depot on the DPL(Z-15693).

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  7. Yes. It is a great picture of the station after abandonment. A copy of it is in my notebook.
    It is especially interesting because it shows the ties and cribbing of the loading ramp on the
    Romley Mill coal track.

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  8. There is quite a bit of history written on Romley (originally Morley) in the oddest places as Robert points out. There is quite a bit unpublished too. This is one of those long lost projects I have floating around somewhere. I discovered there were about 6 (iirc) track configurations for Romley and I have sketches of those somewhere...

    During the later periods the siding that ran thru Romley was extended over Pomroy Gulch and there was a trestle on the uphill side of the truss bridge. I have photos of the 2 bridges side by side after abandonment. I also have photos of the recovery of Engine 67 in the spring of 1921 (The Cole book recollects the engine jumped the turntable in 1918 but RR records show that 2 engines (58 and one other I don't recall) were send down from Leadville to recover 67 in April 1921. I have great respect for Margaret and her father and grandfather but this is just one more example of how second level memory is subject to hard data from official records - and frankly I'm drawing all of this off of memory too so I could be wrong on some of my "facts" - but I know it wasn't 1918.)

    WWI kept Romley going and it was in 1919 after the war that traffic really dropped off so much to the point that it was all but dead. The mills operated sporadically until 1925 when the D&RGW removed the 3rd rail and truly isolated the line. Then the C&S shut it down for good.

    The history of how the Mary Murphy Mine was discovered and how its discoverer was swindled out of it are really interesting too. There are a couple of stories on how it was named. And of course to see how the RR developed its property over the years is quite interesting. I've always loved this stretch of the road and it is indeed the ideal C&S layout in larger scales.

    Derrell

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