Richard-
You are indeed fortunate that your Society has such material available.
As I understand it a trailer or container full of AFEs for the CB&Q were saved from destruction by a private individual. He paid the rent for the storage but was not able to interest the BRHS in taking over the rent or removing the materials. I heard the material has been acquired by the Colorado Railroad Museum and at least may be preserved, if not easily accessed.
It may only be hearsay but in the early days of the BN merger it seemed like the NP and GN people in St. Paul were not receptive to any efforts to preserve CB&Q history. Rumors were that a couple of Baggage Cars of material were sent to St. Paul and never unloaded. They may be the ones at the National Railroad Museum at Green Bay…which I’ve heard haven’t been opened other than to determine the roofs leak. The CB&Q was not liked by the rest of the Hill Roads as it was the only one that was solvent during the entire history of the group and was well run and profitable.
Charlie Vlk
From: CBQ@groups.io <CBQ@groups.io> On Behalf Of Richard Wilkens
Sent: Thursday, July 25, 2019 11:38 AM
To: CBQ@groups.io
Subject: Re: [CBQ] CB&Q Archives Question
Hi Charlie,
Thank you very much for the great overview of what is out there. The reason I ask is that I'm the Archivist with the Spokane, Portland & Seattle Railway Historical Society who has our collection at the Pacific Northwest Railroad Archive in Burien, WA. The collection we have consists of two main components, the Chief Engineer Files and Executive Department files. In the engineer files these are filed by location and by the subject and we have a vast majority of the files for the SP&S and it's subsidiaries and these range from the beginning of the railway to the early years of the BN.
It seems like we are an anomaly as most archives have the usual timetables, photographs, etc. Also the NP & GN societies have quite a bit of materials such as AFE's, drawings, etc. and since the CB&Q was a "Hill Road" I was just curious if similar materials had been saved but the two fires help to explain the lack of certain items. The SP&S suffered a similar loss in the mid 60's but what was lost isn't known.
Thanks again for your help.
Richard Wilkens