From: holpennywagner@msn.com
To: cbq@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Old Wyoming Photos-1
Date: Mon, 2 Jun 2014 11:37:50 -0600
Just back from several days in the Bighorn Basin of Wyoming, staying in Cody
and Greybull. On the way up we stopped in Thermopolis where the Hot Springs
County Museum has a good deal of railroad material. Inside their BN extended
vision cupola caboose are a number of old railroad photos, the best of which is
a framed panoramic view of a passenger train at the mouth of Wind River Canyon
around 1915. The posed view shows a large crowd, including a brass band, in
front of the cars, obviously a special party going somewhere. But it appears
to be the regular train and not a special, as it has an RPO-coach in the
consist, plus a single Pullman sleeper on the rear. And it is pulled by an
oil-burning D-4 Consolidation -- rather unusual for a passenger train. D-4s
3137 and 3138 had been converted to oil-burners by September 1914, according to
the oldest Lines West assignment sheet I have. At any rate it's a fascinating
train, and I've tried twice in the past to get the museum to have the image
scanned, but to no avail. So I simply shot a few views of the individual
passenger cars, and I'm attaching three that I've adjusted and cleaned up. The
cars shown are:
RPO-coach 3002, 49'2" over end sills, built by Ohio Falls in 1879 for the
Atchison & Nebraska (number and configuration unknown) and subsequently B&MR
30. Rebuilt to RPO-coach configuration and numbered B&MR 117, from which
number it became Q 3002 in 1904. It went into company service as 250651 on
Dec. 8, 1930.
Baggage-coach 3212, 44' over end sills, built at Galesburg in 1871 as CB&Q 71,
renumbered 656 in 1898 and 3212 in 1904. Like always a combine. It went into
company service as 207378 on Dec. 19, 1926.
Coach 5193, 49'2" over end sills, built at Aurora in Nov. 1882 as CB&Q 5
(probably the third or fourth reuse of this number) and one of a dozen or so
identical coaches of this size turned out by Aurora between 1881 and 1885. It
went into company service as 251038 on Nov. 17, 1930.
Nice views of some early passenger cars, particularly the RPO-coach and the
baggage-coach. The oil-burning D-4, 3138, can be seen ahead of the 5193, which
was clearly an extra coach tacked on ahead of the two combines. But all of the
cars up front appear to be filled with members of the special party, whatever
it was.
Then, several days later in an ice cream store in Greybull, I found a number of
historical artifacts and old photos on display in the back of the store.
Included were two railroad shots, both from the 1920s, one showing the
roundhouse and the other the roundhouse crew posed on as S-1 or S-2 Pacific.
Both were 5x7 copies of the originals, and I made third generation copies for
myself -- with the permission of the store owner. They, too, are attached.
Two blocks further down the street is the Greybull Museum, which has
deteriorating Q waycar 14232 as its outside showpiece. The car needs a lot of
work soon or it will have to be completely resided. At least they've put
asphalt roofing on it -- rather crudely -- to prevent leaking inside. We were
there just as the museum was preparing to change to summer hours, but it was
closed both days we were in town. I'm attaching views of both sides of the
waycar as it looks today, along with a view of it not long after the
Plattsmouth shops completed it in April 1900 as B&MR 144.
I'll split this into two or three messages to get all the images through.
Hol
CB&Q Coach 5193, D-4 3137, Wind River Canyon, c. 1915, Hot Springs County Museum coll..JPG
Description: JPEG image
CB&Q Bagg.-Coach 3212, Wind River Canyon, c. 1915, Hot Springs County Museum coll..JPG
Description: JPEG image
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