Roper's Snapshot Saturday No.6 | 21 Comments - Click Here :

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Derrell Poole

Derrell Poole

Denver Public Library

Denver Public Library

Derrell Poole

Roper's Snapshot Saturday No.5 | 12 Comments - Click Here :

Derrell Poole

Derrell Poole

Derrell Poole

Roper's Snapshot Redux | 6 Comments - Click Here :

    Keith Hayes - Chris Walker, our South Park friend from New Zealand, likes to root about the Denver Public Library photos, and examine them in great detail. In fact Chris, its time to contribute a couple posts here!

    In one instance, he published an image of the fireman's side C&S B-3-C #8. Chris noted the abundance of coal scoops lodged in the injector pipe in front of the cab. Consensus seemed to be that perhaps this fireman had lost a scoop on a previous run, and the roundhouse wanted him adequately outfitted for this trip. It brings to mind a number of details that I am not seeing on C&S locomotive models.

It's Mogul Month!

    Here is an image of #8 about to depart Denver with the Leadville Passenger in 1931. Three details are present. One, you can see what appears to be an extra coal scoop lodged under the injector pipe directly in front of the cab. Evidently our one fireman was not alone in needing a spare.

    Second, there is a 'L' shaped rod hanging over the handrail bracket at the steam dome. The end closest to the cab has a loop, and evidently this tool was used to clean out the firebox, or perhaps fish out a clinker. Look at photos of the engines, and most all of them have one of these. On the 2-8-0s, they are often hung over the injector. Once in a while, you will see a tool box, or perhaps a grip, on the running board directly in front of the cab. Sometimes, I see a handle lying perpendicular to the rails above the water wings, and this may be a second storage location.

    Third, most every image of a C&S loco has a long rod running diagonally across the fireman's side of the tender. I bet if you check your model, you will see a hook on the upper side of the water wing. This was for the handle of a long reamer: on the photo of #8, the business end is in a second bracket above the head of the conductor. On some locos, there either isn't a second bracket, or the fireman has wedged the reamer between the floorboards of the tender so it won't flail about on rough track.

    Lastly, in Tom Klinger's books, there are a number of images showing a wood pallet thrown up on the coal pile or on the tender deck. I suspect this is a gate placed above the coal doors between the water wings to increase the coal load. With the only coal stations at Denver, Pine Grove, Como, Dickey and Leadville, you want a full tender to get you to the next station! A ways into the trip, this gate was no longer needed, and moved out of the way until the next coal stop. These look to be made of (2) 4x4 verticals with some 2x6 or 2x8 cross pieces all bolted together.

These details are all very easy to model, and are just as distinctive as the Ridgeway spark arrestors!

Keith Hayes

Leadville in Sn3

Roper's Snapshot Saturday No.4 | 7 Comments - Click Here :

Denver Public Library

Derrell Poole

Derrell Poole

Forget Reefer Madness! | 7 Comments - Click Here :

Keith Hayes - Brother Derrell should start building more box cars! 

    West of Buffalo at MP 58.3, are a number of large, very flat meadows. This was the site of Maddox and Alturia. A pair of rather long sidings that almost lapped one another. The meadows, one of which today is the site of the Platte Canyon High School football field, were once used to make ice for harvest.

    At this location was the Maddox Ice Company, and there were several large sheds along the line to hold the ice prior to shipping. Tom Klinger published a number of images of ice loading in the Platte Canyon book. In one image, there are over 30 box cars on the siding in the process of being loaded!

Haviland, Colorado. Denver Public Library.

These will be hung in a few homes along Hemlock Street!

 Don't have room on your layout for an ice pond? Well, I encountered this neat sign during a recent visit to the Byers-Evans House in Denver. Time was, an ice box was just that; a box with ice that you put food in to keep it cold. Wagons, and later trucks, would tour the neighborhoods delivering ice, and one company distributed this sign to facilitate the transaction. Place the amount (in pounds) you want that morning up, and the ice delivery would provide.

Keith Hayes

Leadville in Sn3

Roper's Snapshot Saturday No.3 | 31 Comments - Click Here :

Bunk House Progress Report | 4 Comments - Click Here :

    Darel Leedy - I thought I'd share an in-progress photo so that it would appear like I've been doing something.  I still have a few things to do like window glazing, painting the chimney and adding some additional weathering. But for the most part, it is about finished. It will rest on a stone foundation (barely visible in the old photo) when installed on the layout.
    According to the C&S valuation, the Dickey bunk house was built in 1902. It was listed as 24'X48', with 6" T&G (tongue and groove) siding. All I had to go on was one grainy photograph in Tom Klinger's "High Line". I will post additional details when it is completed.
~ Cowboy Up!