By permission of Hol Wagner:
Norm Metcalf
>
>
> */Excerpt from/*
>
>
> *C&S: The First 10 Years*
>
> Ó 2004 Hol Wagner
>
> * *
>
>
> *Chapter 2: 1899*
>
> * *
>
> * *
>
> *Denver** Yard Improvements*
>
> As the C&S began operations, its yard facilities in Denver – the hub
> of the system – were anything but centralized, or even adequate.
> Denver Union Station, at the foot of Seventeenth Street, was the
> epicenter of railroad activity in the Mile High City, with all
> mainline tracks leading to and from that dignified granite structure.
> The “Colorado Road” became the only railroad operating trains in both
> directions from the passenger terminal. Trains to and from the south,
> plus narrow gauge trains of the South Park lines, arrived and departed
> from the station’s southwest end, while trains to and from the north,
> plus the narrow gauge Clear Creek lines trains, used the northeast end
> of the depot. And in especially convenient fashion, the UPD&G had
> established a coachyard immediately adjacent to the depot tracks – a
> facility the C&S would continue to utilize.
>
> But freight trains and locomotive servicing facilities were another
> matter. The South Park and the Denver & New Orleans/Denver, Texas &
> Gulf had established roundhouses and small yards west of the Union
> Station – the South Park near Fifth and Lawrence streets, the
> D&NO/DT&G near Seventh Street on the southeast bank of the South
> Platte River. The former Colorado Central had long utilized the Union
> Pacific yard facilities northeast of Union Station, though additional
> yard trackage had been built north of the depot along the CC’s cutoff
> to the station and the mainline of the standard gauge Denver, Marshall
> & Boulder, built in 1885 by the UP and absorbed by the UPD&G as the
> preferred route between Denver and Boulder.
>
> When the UPD&G was created in 1890, the old DT&G roundhouse was
> abandoned and the new UP roundhouse, shops and yards at 40th Street,
> several miles northeast of Denver Union Station, became the hub of the
> new railroad’s Denver operations. In one of its first undertakings,
> the Gulf Road constructed the dual gauge West Side Line, a link along
> the northwest bank of the Platte between the former Colorado Central
> and Denver, Marshall & Boulder tracks north of the depot and the South
> Park and DT&G trackage west of Union Station. The West Side Line
> crossed the Platte on a timber trestle near Seventh Street to connect
> with the standard and narrow gauge lines to the south and southwest,
> and it also continued south along the river’s west bank for another
> mile or so to a point near South Park Junction, where it connected
> with the dual gauge tracks of the South Park District. Thus, via a
> rather circuitous route, traffic could be routed between the UP yard
> at 40th Street and the South Park and Gulf Road mainlines. A much more
> direct route – and one that was regularly utilized – involved use of
> the passenger trackage through the depot. But the depot charged a
> per-car fee not only for passenger cars but also for freight cars
> moving over its tracks, so this was an expensive alternative.
>
> During the 1890s, the UPD&G did construct some freight yard trackage
> behind Union Station and the coachyard tracks, extending roughly from
> 15th to 19th streets, parallel to the yard trackage of the Burlington
> & Missouri River Railroad, which had arrived in Denver in 1882 and
> connected directly with the Denver & New Orleans/Denver, Texas & Gulf.
>
> Thus, at creation of the C&S, the Denver freight yards utilized by the
> new road were small and widely separated – and the yard trackage of
> the UP at 40th Street was not part of the lease of the roundhouse and
> shop facilities there. Clearly, the C&S would need additional yard
> trackage, and it promptly set about constructing it, initially
> expanding what was known as the 15th Street Yard behind Union Station,
> and constructing a number of yard tracks near the old DT&G roundhouse
> at Seventh Street. Fortuitously, the UPD&G had held onto that idle
> river bottom property along the Platte, and now the C&S began to make
> use of it. The several hundred acres of bottomland extended around a
> curve of the river and ended at Cherry Creek, where the latter emptied
> into the former – the very site where Denver was born. In 1898, the
> city of Denver was granted rights by the UPD&G to erect a lengthy
> viaduct over the northeastern edge of this property to carry 14th
> Street from downtown, parallel to Cherry Creek, and over the Platte to
> the bustling residential neighborhoods on the northwest side of town,
> and this lengthy steel structure was under construction through much
> of 1898 and 1899.
>
> One of the first capital expenditures undertaken by the C&S was for
> the erection of locomotive servicing facilities at Seventh Street Yard
> so that locomotives of standard gauge trains to and from the south and
> those of the narrow gauge South Park lines would not have to be
> shuttled all the way across town to 40th Street for coal and water.
> Authority for Extraordinary Expenditure No. 3, dated March 2, 1899,
> took the form of a letter signed by Frank Trumbull and addressed to
> general superintendent T.F. Dunaway. It read, “Replying to your favor
> of the 1st instant regarding water tank, coal chutes and three rail
> track for coal chute storage and unloading purposes, Seventh Street
> yard, Denver, at an estimated cost of $1425.00, $2555.00 and $645.00
> respectively. This will be your authority for making these
> improvements at the estimated costs mentioned in our letter.” The
> coaling station was to be a product of the Link-Belt Machinery Co.,
> using materials furnished by that company under contract No. 1214 of
> December 14, 1898; it and the other facilities, however, would not
> actually be erected until 1900.
>
> Hol Wagner
>
------------------------------------
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CBQ/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CBQ/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
mailto:CBQ-digest@yahoogroups.com
mailto:CBQ-fullfeatured@yahoogroups.com
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
CBQ-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
|