Hi Jonathan and all:
This is pretty obscure and remote C&S trackage even though it's not far
from Raton as the crow flies. The information below refers to the
Maxwell Land Grant, New Mexico's largest grant, as I recall, which
extended into Colorado but mostly was in New Mexico taking in a huge
section of forest, range and coal country around, south and west of
Raton. My additions in parentheses.
This is from: Myrick, David F., "New Mexico's Railroads: A Historical
Survey," University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, N.M., Revised
Edition, 1990, pp. 136-37.
"The Colorado and Southern operated only one branch in New Mexico.
Dating back to the days of the DT&FW (Denver, Texas & Fort Worth), the
14-mile branch was built from Trinidad, Colorado, to Sopris, thence up
Long's Canyon in 1888, terminating at Maxwell, Colorado. In 1890, the
managers of the Maxwell Land Grant, in a further move to develop their
resources, persuaded General (Grenville) Dodge to extend the Maxwell
branch along Long's Canyon into New Mexico to Cemetery Canyon where it
looped back to climb over the ridge to a point in the Canadian River
basin which was given the name of Catskill. To meet the objective of
the managers of the grant, the railroad was extended in both directions
along the Canadian River from Catskill to serve the prospective lumber
operators. Northwesterly, a 12-mile branch was built to Vasquez in
1890 while a nine-mile branch was built southeasterly to Dunn's and
Newton between 1890 and 1897. In all, the C&S lines southwest of
Trinidad totaled 48 miles of which about 30 miles were in New Mexico."
Myrick goes on to say 11 sawmills were built on the branch but didn't
generate enough traffic to support the line. All but five miles of the
track were pulled up in 1902 and 1908 with that last five miles
(Trinidad-Jansen-Long's Junction) taken up in 1940.
The C&S main from Trinidad through Clayton, N.M., to Amarillo, Texas,
continues in operation, of course, but sometime after the BNSF merger
became directional westbound hosting empty unit coal trains and other
traffic.
Bill
Bill Diven
Placitas, N.M.
-30-
------------------------------------
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:
CBQ-digest@yahoogroups.com
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/
|