D&RGW Stock Car 5743 Restoration, Como, Colorado
Tax deductible
Along with track construction in 2020, the South Park Rail Society will be tackling our first major car restoration project; former Denver & Rio Grande Western stock car 5743.
Why a Rio Grande Stock Car?
The Colorado & Southern and its predecessors all operated stock cars on the South Park Line, the C&S rostered over 100 such cars and they were frequent visitors to Como. As such, it is important to have a stock car in Como to help interpret and convey an idea of the types of cars that were used on the line.
Though it is a Rio Grande car, No. 5743 is not completely devoid of ties to the South park Line. From 1911 through 1934, the Colorado & Southern leased the former South Park mainline from Gunnison to the Alpine Tunnel to the Rio Grande, which operated trains between Gunnison and Pitkin. Stockcars such as 5743 were regular visitors to the line as cattle and sheep were moved between summer and winter grazing grounds. The Rio Grande also operated the former South Park Baldwin Branch, between Gunnison and coal mines at Baldwin until 1955 And until the third rail was removed between Salida and Leadville in 1925, Rio Grande cars (including the occasional stockcar) loaded with coal from the Baldwin mines bound for C&S stations west of Como were interchanged with the C&S at Leadville.
As actual Colorado & Southern stock cars are not available (save for the sole surviving example, C&S 7064, which has a home at the Colorado railroad Museum in Golden), a Rio Grande car will serve as a stand in. The Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad made 5743 available to us at an extremely reasonable price and while it needs a lot of work, it is a fairly straight forward restoration project that will provide a good opportunity for the SPRS to build up wood rail car restoration skills.
The Project
No. 5743 will be restored to its 1926 appearance, immediately after it was rebuilt. The car will receive a new roof, new floor and new doors, along with repairs to its frame and walls. The completed car will be painted “boxcar red” and lettered in a 1926 D&RGW lettering scheme.
Work on No. 5743 will be done during the 2020 work days in Como and it is planned to have the car completed by August, 2020 for a debut at Boreas Pass Railroad Day on August 15.
The total budget for this project is $7,000.00, which includes $4,500.00 for materials and $2,500.00 for moving the car from Durango to Como.
The Car
Denver & Rio Grande Western 5743 was built by American Car & Foundry’s St. Louis, Missouri plant in 1904. As part of an order for 350 stock cars, numbered 5500 to 5849. Twenty years later, the D&RGW elected to rebuild its narrow-gauge freight cars rather than invest in new ones and the 5500 series stockcars were rebuilt at the Alamosa, Colorado shops in 1926.
No. 5743 remained in service until the D&RGW ended narrow gauge freight operations in 1968. No. 5743 was one of 103 stock cars that the D&RGW sold for scrap to the American Pressed Steel Corporation of New Jersey in September of 1970. American Pressed Steel then resold many of the cars to a local scrapper, Floyd Reed of Alamosa, who was responsible for actually dismantling the cars.
Over the next few years, many cars were scrapped on site, however Reed was willing to sell intact cars to interested buyers and this is where many of the surviving Rio Grande narrow gauge cars around today came from. No. 5743 was one of several stock cars purchased from Reed by Scenic Railways, the first operator of the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad.
In 1981, the D&RGW sold the Silverton branch to Florida investor Charles Bradshaw, who reorganized it as the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad. Bradshaw was interested in adding freight cars to the D&SNG’s roster and purchased many of the cars that were owned by Scenic Railways and moved them to Durango. No. 5743 was among the cars purchased by Bradshaw, who had a plan to use the stockcars to haul horses to and from resorts that were located along the D&S and accessible only by rail.
Apparently, a few of the cars were used a couple of times in this manner in 1981. The plan did not end up coming to fruition and the stockcars were placed in storage on the D&S, most of them being parked on a spur at Tacoma, in the Animas Canyon north of Durango. No. 5743 remained at Tacoma until November of 2019 when it was moved on its own wheels to Rockwood and then loaded on a semi truck and brought to Como.
Why a Rio Grande Stock Car?
The Colorado & Southern and its predecessors all operated stock cars on the South Park Line, the C&S rostered over 100 such cars and they were frequent visitors to Como. As such, it is important to have a stock car in Como to help interpret and convey an idea of the types of cars that were used on the line.
Though it is a Rio Grande car, No. 5743 is not completely devoid of ties to the South park Line. From 1911 through 1934, the Colorado & Southern leased the former South Park mainline from Gunnison to the Alpine Tunnel to the Rio Grande, which operated trains between Gunnison and Pitkin. Stockcars such as 5743 were regular visitors to the line as cattle and sheep were moved between summer and winter grazing grounds. The Rio Grande also operated the former South Park Baldwin Branch, between Gunnison and coal mines at Baldwin until 1955 And until the third rail was removed between Salida and Leadville in 1925, Rio Grande cars (including the occasional stockcar) loaded with coal from the Baldwin mines bound for C&S stations west of Como were interchanged with the C&S at Leadville.
As actual Colorado & Southern stock cars are not available (save for the sole surviving example, C&S 7064, which has a home at the Colorado railroad Museum in Golden), a Rio Grande car will serve as a stand in. The Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad made 5743 available to us at an extremely reasonable price and while it needs a lot of work, it is a fairly straight forward restoration project that will provide a good opportunity for the SPRS to build up wood rail car restoration skills.
The Project
No. 5743 will be restored to its 1926 appearance, immediately after it was rebuilt. The car will receive a new roof, new floor and new doors, along with repairs to its frame and walls. The completed car will be painted “boxcar red” and lettered in a 1926 D&RGW lettering scheme.
Work on No. 5743 will be done during the 2020 work days in Como and it is planned to have the car completed by August, 2020 for a debut at Boreas Pass Railroad Day on August 15.
The total budget for this project is $7,000.00, which includes $4,500.00 for materials and $2,500.00 for moving the car from Durango to Como.
The Car
Denver & Rio Grande Western 5743 was built by American Car & Foundry’s St. Louis, Missouri plant in 1904. As part of an order for 350 stock cars, numbered 5500 to 5849. Twenty years later, the D&RGW elected to rebuild its narrow-gauge freight cars rather than invest in new ones and the 5500 series stockcars were rebuilt at the Alamosa, Colorado shops in 1926.
No. 5743 remained in service until the D&RGW ended narrow gauge freight operations in 1968. No. 5743 was one of 103 stock cars that the D&RGW sold for scrap to the American Pressed Steel Corporation of New Jersey in September of 1970. American Pressed Steel then resold many of the cars to a local scrapper, Floyd Reed of Alamosa, who was responsible for actually dismantling the cars.
Over the next few years, many cars were scrapped on site, however Reed was willing to sell intact cars to interested buyers and this is where many of the surviving Rio Grande narrow gauge cars around today came from. No. 5743 was one of several stock cars purchased from Reed by Scenic Railways, the first operator of the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad.
In 1981, the D&RGW sold the Silverton branch to Florida investor Charles Bradshaw, who reorganized it as the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad. Bradshaw was interested in adding freight cars to the D&SNG’s roster and purchased many of the cars that were owned by Scenic Railways and moved them to Durango. No. 5743 was among the cars purchased by Bradshaw, who had a plan to use the stockcars to haul horses to and from resorts that were located along the D&S and accessible only by rail.
Apparently, a few of the cars were used a couple of times in this manner in 1981. The plan did not end up coming to fruition and the stockcars were placed in storage on the D&S, most of them being parked on a spur at Tacoma, in the Animas Canyon north of Durango. No. 5743 remained at Tacoma until November of 2019 when it was moved on its own wheels to Rockwood and then loaded on a semi truck and brought to Como.
Organizer
Jason Midyette
Organizer
Bendena, KS
South Park Rail Society
Registered nonprofit
Donations are typically 100% tax deductible in the US.
