2013 A FANTASTIC Year in Review!

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1 2013 A FANTASTIC Year in Review! NEW MEMBERS ARE ALWAYS WELCOME! If interested in joining All Aboard Westcliffe, call Tim Thrun at Depot update - Tim Thrun modern The chronology of the D&RG Depot in Westcliffe began in 2002, clearly one hundred plus years since its construction with the passing of Evelyn Evie Miller. She had owned and occupied the Depot as her home since In May of 2003, Richard and Audrey Stermer purchased the property with the intent of re-selling it to All Aboard Westcliffe when funds became available. The goal of the Stermers and AAW was the preservation of the Depot for its historical significance to Westcliffe and the Wet Mountain Valley s heritage. After an early premature letter writing campaign to raise funds for the purchase, an in earnest Depot Committee was formed in late 2009 with Jim Schulz at the helm. The original Depot Committee consisted of Trudy Norris, Diane Zarra, Mel Porth, Tim Thrun, Beverly Goertz, Don Kaufman and Anna Stubbs. They were tasked with finding a way to make this Depot Dream a reality. Trudy Norris led the charge to get the Colorado State Designation of Historic Places recognition. Diane Zarra was the first to achieve success with a philanthropic foundation grant for purchase of the Depot. Over the ensuring three years during the great recession as charitable trusts and foundations changed their grant programs focused toward more humanitarian projects such as food banks and health and education, Mel Porth was beating the bushes for local supporters. AAW received more NO s than a refrigerator salesman in Nome, Alaska those years but the Committee never gave up. A few personnel changes, but they never quit! In the winter/spring of 2012/2013 with Dave Tonsing as Depot Committee Chairman,

2 things finally started to loosen up. Mel had secured quite a number of local pledges, two major players in the private foundation arena had pledged their support for the Depot purchase, but we were still about 30% short of our goal. The Colorado Historical Society then advertised for grant requests for 2013 and the committee decided to go for broke (what could they say besides NO which we had already heard way more than once before). Then during the first half of August, 2013 much to the delight, surprise and giddy laughter of the Depot Committee and all the membership, AAW s request for $100,000 to purchase the D&RG Rail Road Depot in Downtown Westcliffe from Richard and Audrey Stermer was granted by the Colorado State Historical Fund. Now the job of the Depot Committee shifted from asking for money to collecting pledges and promises of purchase money as matching funds to the SHF grant. We are also working through details and State requirements associated with the SHF grant and are pleased to announce that at the time of publication of this Rail Tales the Committee s goal is to close this real estate purchase by January Our thanks go out to the AAW membership for their hard work and support of our assorted Depot fundraisers over the past 3 years and their patience with the Depot Committee as we plugged forward. A special note of thanks also goes out to the Historic Willows School Society for their going before AAW with the State Historical Fund s contracting progress they are our Pathfinders so to speak. It s not over yet as the acquisition process is only PHASE 1 of AAW s Depot Project. PHASE II is the historical and structural analysis of the building (already budgeted for and funded) which should not take too long as the structure is already on the Colorado Register of Historic Places (Thank you, Trudy) and an architectural firm has already submitted a bid for the analysis. Based on that analysis, AAW can then start on and complete PHASE III Restoration. So buckle up kids, the roller coaster ride on this project is just leaving the platform Restoration Projects by Mel Porth 2013 was a banner year for the project of restoring railroad cars. Finally, sets of car couplers were found, salvaged, modified and installed - one on the caboose and one on the outfit car. Now the cars are coupled together as expected. Additionally, a multitude of small tasks came together for completion; such as hand rails, building of stairs for access from the ground level, installed two windows and finished the interior of the outfit car, painting of letters and numbers on the outside, safety measures for the visiting public, equipped the outfit car with period furniture, etc., etc., etc. There were anxious moments anticipating all the work would not be complete by the anticipated date of October 19 th for the Grand

3 Open House. But with terrific volunteer help in all departments of preparation, the event was a huge success with many locals and non-locals attending. Ultimately, it was an extremely gratifying conclusion to a very successful year in the history of AAW. The three pictures show the original home made from the two cabooses and then the process of moving them from the Florence site to AAW in March of #0825 was always a caboose. The other was a box car converted to a caboose. It is known that box cars were converted by D&RGW (Denver & Rio Grande Western) into cabooses and the numbers of such converted cars are generally known. These two cars sat on the ground from 1945 to While the number for #0825 is known, the number on the side door caboose is gone. However, AAW members have been told that Colorado Rail Road Museum at Golden can supply the number. It appears that this D&RGW side door caboose is the only remaining example of converted box cars to side door cabooses known to exist. Side Car Caboose by Eula Strayer In 1992, All Aboard Westcliffe was able to acquire two Denver and Rio Grande Railroad cars. They had been converted to a dwelling in Florence. John Swartley, a summer resident of Silver Cliff researched the story about these cars. Watch for more detailed information in a future newsletter about John s research. John found that in 1946, Charles Templeton, a conductor on the D&RG Railroad was ready to retire. He learned that his caboose # 0825 that he had ridden in for years on the Pueblo to Salida route was also being retired. Mr. Templeton asked if it could be shipped to the Florence area. It was shipped to Florence along with another retired car. Mr. Templeton made the two retired cars into a comfortable home. Later the home was used by a rancher as lodging for his hired hands.

4 Westcliffe Model Rail Road Club-Model Railroading at All Aboard Westcliffe by Jim Schulz All Aboard Westcliffe is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit located in Westcliffe, Colorado in the Wet Mountain Valley of Custer County. AAW promotes the history of railroading and provides educational programs for the public in the Interpretive Center located at 110 Rosita Ave. There is a railroad museum located next door. The idea of creating a model railroad in the basement of the All Aboard Westcliffe Interpretive Center was born12 years ago. AAW Board member, Tim Thrun suggested this project and it was adopted. Tim then became the project manager and has held this position to this day. Now, there is an HO gauge model railroad in the basement of the AAW Interpretive Center thanks to Tim and quite a few volunteers over the past 12 years. The layout has scenery, vegetation, buildings, and a mountain called Inspiration Point. The layout takes up all forty-six feet of the east wall, eight feet of the south wall, and seventeen feet of the north wall. The size of the entire layout comes to 238 sq ft. The Denver & Rio Grande Railroad was the rail transportation in the late 1800 s through the 1930 s. In later years, the D&RG was completely dismantled. The AAW model RR depicts the old D&RG line as it was in the 20 s and 30 s. A tour of the layout begins with a rail yard in an industrial park. It continues on, going by some 1920 suburbs coming into the Canon City depot. The Main Street in Canon City is depicted, showing storefronts, the historic St. Cloud Hotel, (moved from Westcliffe and renamed the Hotel Canon and later back to the St. Cloud Hotel). As you look down the main street, you will see the Jones Theater (1922) and the Fremont County National Bank. The Colorado Territorial Prison, (later called the Colorado State Penitentiary) can be seen up against a steep hillside. Across the road is the power plant, which still stands today. Most of the buildings and other structures depicted in Canon City are still standing today. Moving out of Canon, we come to a painted depiction of the Royal Gorge on the wall. Below, the D&RG main line continues into the gorge, passing over the historic Hanging Bridge. The Arkansas River is flowing down in the gorge. Coming out of the Royal Gorge, the main line moves on to the Texas Creek junction. It is here that a spur line (coming off the main line of the D&RG) begins to climb the 3% grade going to Westcliffe and the Wet Mountain Valley.

5 At this point in the narrative, a spectacular feat of engineering needs to be explained. The Texas Creek junction has a Y type system that allows the train to turn locomotives around or allow the train to either continue on the main line or proceed up the spur line along Texas Creek and beyond to Westcliffe. Locomotives of the type used on the spur line needed to be able to gain several thousand feet of altitude in a short distance to get to Westcliffe (Altitude 7,885 Ft.). There is a large, high projection near the spur line right of way. The engineers devised a way to build a 3% grade by constructing a roadway around this massive priory thus gaining the necessary altitude to Westcliffe. This engineering feat is depicted on the layout. The massive promontory is called Inspiration Point. The railroad spur line is also depicted, showing the climb up from Texas Creek, around Inspiration Point and continuing to climb toward Westcliffe. You will no doubt see that the track ends, and doesn t show the way to Westcliffe. Bringing the right of way up to Westcliffe is a major part of the model railroad project. It will take some time before we can finish that part of this adventure. Continuing on the main line from Texas Creek, you will see the line curves around toward a large rail yard with many sidings, switches, rolling stock and an engine roundhouse with several bays. In front of the roundhouse is a turntable used by railroad maintenance personnel to position several engines in the various bays. The abovedescribed area on the layout is the Salida Rail yard. It was the chief section headquarters for the D&RG railroad. Today, there is little evidence of its existence and we thought it should be depicted to keep the history of this yard alive. This depiction of the AAW model railroad has been a virtual tour (in print), of how this particular stretch of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad put down track, pulled boxcars, flat cars, cattle cars ore cars, and even passenger cars so that people and goods could be carried to market. LET S KEEP THEM TRAINS ROLLING. Yard Sale by Eula Strayer Easily read from the parking lot across the street from the All Aboard Westcliffe Engine House Museum is the LARGE yard sale sign on the Engine House. The sign is a great marketing ploy for enticing folks in search of the yard sale and

6 into the museum. The perpetual yard sale actually exists in the Dora Mine building at the back of the property belong to AAW. However, the days that it is open are not perpetual but selective. It is open on holidays like Memorial Day weekend, 4 th of July weekend, Labor Day weekend and other selected weekends when there are crowds in town. In order to keep continuously varied perpetual stock, donations of items suitable for resale are always needed. Some things do not sell well and therefore are not needed: no clothes, tires, mattresses or box springs, electronics, etc. In other words, NOTHING THAT REQUIRES PAYMENT TO DISPOSE OF IT! Please donate freely and often to the AAW perpetual yard sale. Special Thanks To the many other folks that volunteer to help with projects, donate their time and energies to help with the many projects AAW takes on. LAST BUT NOT LEAST, we want to thank the many community members and organizations that helped AAW with their fundraising efforts, supplying the needed dollars for matching grants, etc. Also, the support of the community coming to the pancake breakfasts, yard sales and other events that will be held this summer. Once again, the Wet Mountain Valley Community Foundation will be providing matching funds to many of the Custer County nonprofit organizations. AAW is requesting your support! Forms may be found in either of the two local newspapers: Wet Mountain Tribune or Sangre De Cristo Sentinel. Thank YOU!!!! YOUR SUPPORT CONTINUES TO HELP ALL ABOARD WESTCLIFFE IN THEIR MANY ENDEAVORS: TO RESEARCH THE HISTORY AND EDUCATE THE PUBLIC ON THE UNIQUE HERITAGE FOUND IN CUSTER COUNTY AND THE WET MOUNTAIN VALLEY! Visit the All Aboard Westcliffe website: