THE RAILHEAD
NEWS LETTER OF THE PIKES PEAK "N"GINEERS MODEL RAILROAD CLUB
| December 2008 | RAILROADING SINCE OCTOBER 13, 1989 |
Calendar of events 2008
December
Dec 1: Board Meeting – Maggie Mae's – dinner at 6:30 pm – meeting at 7:30 pm
Dec 2, 9, 16, 23 & 30: Tuesday work sessions – 7 to 9 pm
Dec 5, 12, 26: Friday work session – 7 to 9 pm
Dec 6, 13, 20 & 27: Saturday work session or run trains 9 to 11 am
Dec 19: Corporate Meeting & Election of Officers
Calendar of events 2009
Jan 5: Board Meeting – Maggie Mae's – dinner at 6:30 pm – meeting at 7:30 pm
Jan 2, 9, 23 & 30: Friday work sessions – 7 to 9 pm
Jan 6, 13, 20 & 27: Tuesday work sessions – 7 to 9 pm
Jan 16: Business meeting – club room – 7 to 9 pm
Jan 3, 17, 24 & 31: Saturday work & running sessions – 9 to11 am
Jan 10: TECO show – 9 am to 2:30 pm
Feb 21 & 22: Great Train Expo
Mar 14 & 15: Boot Hill show in Garden City, KS
Nominations and Elections
Here it is another year gone by and time to nominate members for club officers. At the November business meeting the following members were nominated for the following offices.Superintendent: Rick Shumpert, Chris Dueker
Assistant Superintendent: Mike Peck
Station Master: Mike Peck
Paymaster: Chris Dueker
Members at Large: Ron Theisman, Dave Woosley, John Grier & Mary Peck
Nominations will open again at the corporate meeting on December 19, 2008. As you can see by the nominations we have some people nominated for more than one office. Our by laws prohibit anyone from holding more than one office at a time so this could prove to be an interesting election this year.
New Members
I wish to welcome the following new members to the club – Steve McWhirt, Bob LaHair & Steve Peters. WELCOME!!Corporate Meeting
The meeting this year will be held at the Peck's. As always we will have a small Christmas party after the meeting so bring a few goodies with you when you attend. Spouses are welcome to come. There may be a small swap meet after the meeting as well so if you have some stuff you think you can sell bring it.TRAINEXPOCO – TECO January Show
As of this writing the setup time for this show will be Friday night after 6 pm. This time could change between now and then do to a booking of a function that night. We may have a larger hall this time as well. There are about 43 tables sold so far and the goal is to have 100 vendor tables available for the public.Boot Hill show in Garden City, KS
The show next year will be held March 14 & 15, 2009. We have not set the time for loading the MTL but it will be around 9 am Friday the 13th. Then we'll go and eat breakfast some place and head out. We should arrive in Garden City, KS between 3 & 4 pm. We'll check in to out motel and then go setup and then eat and get ready for Saturday morning. At this time we have 5 members signed up to go. This is the minimum of members required to setup the MTL. If some of the membership thinks they can make this trip the signup sheet is on the club bulletin board. This has always been a fun trip.The November GTE Show
We met at the storage unit around noon Friday and loaded the MTL and headed to Rosie's in monument for lunch. We then headed for the Western Stock building to setup. Steve McWhirt our newest member received his baptism by fire by assisting with the MTL setup. Steve learned very quickly. Over all the show was good but I believe the crowds were smaller this year.
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| Charley, Steve, Rick & Lester testing a train | Crowd around MTL |
Club Show
New members Steve McWhirt & Steve Peters & I met Rick at the DAV at 2 pm to take down the tables and chairs. We had the job completed by 3:15 so decided to go and get the MTL earlier and setup. I remained to do some last minute measuring and marking for the layouts. As all good plans go I found a flaw which I was able to correct before the guys got back with the MTL. You know measure it once and draw it twice or no matter how many times you cut it it's still too short!By moving things around we were able to setup the MTL in the 14' by 18' configuration. The Pikes Peak and southern showed up and then the Youth in Model Railroading. They were able to have their layouts setup by 8 pm. Steve Peters got his baptism by fire at this show.
On show day we started with a little snow on the ground and chilly weather just the way I wished it. Those vendors coming down from Denver said they just took their time and had no problems. Everything was setup and ready to go by 10 am. Unfortunately we only had about 80 people all day. All the vendors I talked to said they made a little money and really enjoyed the show and to keep them in mind for next year. I wish to thank all the members that worked the show. We had more members involved this year than last and it showed. I wish to thank the Pikes Peak & Southern and the Youth in Model Railroading for attending. All the clubs signed up new members. That's GREAT!!!
The winner of the layout said he was talking about joining the Youth in Model Railroading with his son. On that point I would say the show was a big success.
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| View of vendors and crowd | Gerald Drews talking up the Youth program |
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| Taking down the PP&S | The clean up crew |
Part 4 of the DSP&P
In part 3 we were leaving Pine Grove and heading to Bailey and so the story continues.We turned off at Bailey and worked our way back to Estabrook. Estabrook is now Estabrook Park. We did find the grade shown in the photos but lost it just to the right of the first photo. We determined that the grade went through a house then crossed the river and entered a canyon where a house is sitting. We'll need to take a picture next time for clarification.
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| The J W Green building 1898 | The DSP&P freight house |
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| Part of grade outside of Bailey | The grade is the part just passed the van goes to Bailey |
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| Bridge built by Keystone Bridge Co. of Pittsburg, PA | Glen Isle Wait Station |
The above two structures and a caboose is in a small park in Bailey, CO. There are plaques explaining where the bridge and wait station came from.
From Bailey to Kenosha Pass Hwy 285 was built mostly on the old grade. I did a little more research on this section and found there may be some remnants of the old grade up Hall Valley, so will be on my list to check when I do this trip again.
We arrived at the summit of Kenosha Pass and grabbed a parking spot as the parking on both sides of the highway were packed with vehicles for hiking and biking. The area we wanted to look at was all fenced in so we went back to the car and headed back to a wide spot down the pass. We saw what looked like the grade and traced it for as far as we could see. After we drove back up to the summit we drove over to the camp grounds and parked there so we could walk around. We found some plaques explaining the impact the railroad had on the area. I'm guessing the DSP&P Historic Society laid some ties and rails and a switch. According to the plaques at the site, their trying replace the railroad history of the area. We also found out that what we thought was the old grade was an old road as the grade went around the shallow lake at the summit.
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| What I thought was the old grade | Rebuilt "Y" at summit of Kenosha Pass |
In the picture, above left, appeared to be the old grade and we could follow it up over the pass. It turned out to be a wrong hypothesis. The grade at this point is under the highway. The photo to the right is the partial "Y", notice the switch, it is definitely not a DSP&P switch stand. Now that we know this site is here it is worth coming back and doing more exploration.
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| Grade around Lake | Grade coming down into South Park |
From our short visit to the summit we learned that more exploration was needed. Much of the grade is in trees and not visible from any roads. I see a camping trip in the future.
We headed down the pass into South Park with the grade off to the left of the highway. We rounded a left hand curve and crossed over the grade putting it on our right. We then followed the grade all the way into Jefferson. In Jefferson the original depot is in use as an ice cream shop on one side and a reality office on the other. After leaving Jefferson we headed to Como where this phase of our trip ended.
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| Jefferson Depot now an ice cream parlor and a Realty. | |