Creede, 1971?
A few months ago when Mum was moving house I had a look through some of Dad’s old slides…
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| Creede, August 1971, Keith Hilton photo. |
She was considering whether to chuck them, so it seemed I had nothing to loose. Whilst it wasn’t a thorough job I did find some railway interest - but luckily they were saved so I’ve more time to do it properly at some point…
In the boxes for 1971 I found this and was stopped in my tracks. A few months previously I’d drawn up a scheme for a Rio Grande N cameo, inspired by the Creede branch in its dying days. Here, ten years or so earlier, my Dad has stood at Creede and witnessed the place himself, first hand. Oh, how I wish he was here and I could ask him about it - and more why he was there! I know he did road trips each summer from Canada when he did a summer school teaching geography in his late twenties. There is a mystery though…
Creede wasn’t a museum at this point. Rail service this far up the branch had ceased a few years previously, yet, right next to the depot stands a 40ft box car?
Why?
It’s tantalising. Were the rails shiny? Did it seem to have been just left behind? Did he visit the narrow gauge??
Can you help!? If not, like me, enjoy the period photo - it’s you can, I’d love to hear from you - leave me a comment or get in touch using the form on the Commissions page. Until next time, more soon…
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Hi James
ReplyDeleteLovely and evocative photo- good your Mum did not throw them out before you had a chance to look at them
Seems like the Creede branch still has some use. There is a You Tube of train from late year . The current operator is the "Colorado Pacific and Rio Grande"
and the loco was a EMD SD70MAC
Enjoy the rest of the weekend
Best regards
Alan
Today’s Creede branch is cut short, even of South Fork. There are a few more I’ve got to share but I suspect I’ll find more when I do a proper look.
DeleteHi James, a wonderful sense of time and place. I think the boxcar had been dropped off recently as it has an inspection date sometime in 1971 (I can't make out the month).
ReplyDeleteThat’s interesting. I was trying to make out that sort of detail, but couldn’t see anything. You got further than me!
DeleteQuite a run from Canada to Colorado, but Creede on Google images seems to show at least one shot of the hill in your picture.
ReplyDeleteThere is no doubt this is Creede, I didn’t know he’d visited but there are other American places in the same batch, with sensible dates… the mystery is why the box car was there in 71!
DeleteJames, not much help but I was in the area in the mid 1980's. My dad was chasing the ghosts of the narrow gauge routes. We spent most of our time around Leadville.
ReplyDeleteThis time line shows that service to Creede ended in 72.
https://www.coloradocentralmagazine.com/creede-line-chronology/
Thanks Joe. I found a similar timeline in my book on the Rio Grande in the San Luis Valley - hidden on a map… and so likelihood is box car was there to be loaded with bagged ore, higher grade concentrate I think.
DeleteI suspect power would have been a GP9 by then… possibly a 30 or 35.
TBH it bugged me that my children never asked about my travels around the world. I would come home from India and it would be like I'd just got back from London.
ReplyDeleteBut our travels are important - the places we choose to go, and what we record because it matters to us. One of my father's very few trips abroad was to Belgium - actually thinking about it, it might have been the only country he ever went to. He went wiith my grandfather, and took photos of the Vicinal. I don't even know if they travelled on it.
I’ve got others too - some taken on board The Canadian. I’d never realised he’d traveled aboard the fabled trainS
DeleteJames, I very much doubt that boxcar was spotted for loading bagged concentrate as late as 1971. After 1969 shipments of raw silver-zinc concentrate were dumped into open gondolas at a truck dump and ramp at the wye at Wasson 2 miles outside Creede proper. The box was probably to be loaded with company materials out of the yard and depot as track was about to be cut back to the wye. Concentrate shipments continued until 1985 when the last active mine closed.
ReplyDeleteThanks Jim. I have Stephen Rasmussen’s book, which states 1973… but now Dad has gone I can’t ask him any more details and there are no other photos of the area in his collection - that I’ve found yet, at least. Beautiful area and a fantastic rabbit hole for me!
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