Cleburne ?
daveklepper IsTex on vacation or something?
IsTex on vacation or something?
>> PRR-PC Juniata? No - unfortunately I am not familiar enough with those shops to comment>> Paducha No - right magnitude, don't think the mileage between other shops works out. I would put Paducha as the 2nd most recognizable rebuilds with their GP9M (GP8, GP10, GP11) project.
Hmmm trying to think of another hint that won't totally give it away. Shops still show up on Google Maps.
Deleted Rgds IGN
Nah, Juniata, Paducah was self-sufficient.
Hey, Tex , do I have the answer?
PRR-PC Juniata?
Arguably the shops were the home of one of the most well known, most easily recognized, and definitely the most ambitious rebuild programs in the United States.
The shop was no longer independent, and in fact became dependent on the other two. Heavy metal work was sent to one shop about 473 miles away while electrical work went to another shop about 1155 miles in the opposite direction.
The railroad went though a cost cutting exercise and this non-independent shop was the logical one to close.
The locomotive cranes and cradles from the steam era lasted until the very end.
The shop was large enough that each specific component rebuild got its own area. Trucks were rebuilt in one place, prime movers in another, with a final "assembly" area.
WAG(sorry bout that) shots in the dark. Not D&H Colonie (was closed when it burned) . I'll throw my hands up and admit I do not know. However saw the thread was empty.
Rgds IGN
Ok side story. The Railroad used to have their own fire department, but in a cost saving effort they decided to just use city services. There was an elaborate fire plan and they had fire drills occasionally.
So as one might guess apparently white hot bits of metal from the welding process sprinkled down into the upholstery shop and smoldered until that night. A reg glow appeared and the call of fire went out.
One of the steps in the fire plan was to cut power to the impacted building. Unfortunately the power to that building was the same circuit that the water pumps were on. The fire department arrived and hooked up to the local fire plugs to find them with zero pressure. Fire rages on while a line is run to the closest city fire hydrant (thousands of feet away). The heat get sufficient to ignite (explode) the highly flammable paints and solvents in the paint shop. The fire fighters spend all the time keeping other buildings from catching on fire.
Ironically the next morning the only wall of the coach shop was the wall with the hopper car repair.
The remains were cleared away, dumped in the middle of one of the wyes (which later became a superfund cleanup site).
The shop was not rebuild. Work that would have been done here was sent elsewhere.
First one to jump in after I've given enough clues... The story continues...
The cars had ended up in the upholstery section of the coach shop.
The bridge and building crew was called in to repair the hopper car impression. They put steel beams on either side and clamped them together pulling the punched out section back into place. To make certain the patch was secure they welded the repaired piece of wall to the gussets of the roof trusses.
daveklepperDid the brakeman live through this experience?
Did the brakeman live through this experience?
The story begins...
The hopper car (two of them actually) being kicked with a brakeman in the car repair yard (can't say the name because it would give it away). As the cars approached the end of the track the brakeman discovered the cars hand brake was inoperable. This was probably why the cars were being sent to the shops.. Anyway what finally stopped the cars was the rear wall of the shop. The 180x340 foot shop built in 1908 had a hipped roof supported by wooden beams resting on 4 brick thick walls. The hoppers made a punch out in the bricks of several inches in it the shape of a hopper car.
Note this was only one of the massive buildings in this major railroad shop.
A great question! Wish I had the resources to figure out the answer!
What major railroad shops were closed down after an unfortunate string of events that started by a hopper car's hand brakes failing? Name the railroad, the shop, and the string of events. The bonus question is what was the last rebuild project done at these shops, the last locomotive to be completed of that project, and date.
Amazingly enough I discovered and visited these shops for the first time the summer right before the hopper car incident. I hope it wasn't my visit that jinxed the place.
OK Tex, next question please!
daveklepperThe railroads he promoted, which if any are running today, the reason for their existance, and the reason for the existance or abandonment today.
Silverton Railroad - built to replace a toll road that Mears had built but the wagons could not handle the loads. Plans to reach Ouray was never realized due to the silver panic of 1893. Right of way was eventually donated to the Colorado Highway Department and became mostly the Million Dollar Highway.
Silverton Northern - branch of the Silverton Railroad with aspirations of a cut off to Lake City and hence to Denver (153 miles and 14 hours shorter). Mines started playing out and during WWII the equipment was requisitioned to use in Alaska on the White Pass. Some of right of way can be driven on today. I personally made it up to the Sunny Side mine upper tramway a few summers ago.
Rio Grande Southern - built to connect Durango to Ouray by going around the mountains to the west and to the DRG to the north at Ridgeway. Was completed only a few years before the silver panic. The road was always broke. Fate was sealed in 1952 when they lost the coal hauling contract to a trucking company (for the city of Rico?). Anyway the next year, after the rail line was abandon, the trucking company quadrupled the rates. If the railroad would have been able to hung on for a few more years it probably would have become a tourist like like the Durango & Silverton. Amazingly enough I have never driven through this part of Colorado. Do not know how much right of way has been reused as highway 145. I know a road already existed before the railroad was abandon, but in many places it is called Railroad Avenue, so ???.
Silverton Gadstone & Northerly - Was built by the Gold King Mine in Gadstone, apparently after Mears could not get financing to build a branch to their mine. It hauled 300 tons of ore a day. Sold to Mears in 1906(?) who operated it as the "Gadstone Branch" until it was obvious the mines were playing out in the 1930s. Right of way is now Colorado 110a basically a glorified jeep & mining truck trail.
The railroads he promoted, which if any are running today, the reason for their existance, and the reason for the existance or abandonment today.
A copy of Beebe's Narrow Gauge thru the Rockies might help.
Chief Ouray and Otto Mears in Washington in 1868.
Frontier in Transition: A History of Southwestern Colorado
http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/blm/co/10/chap5.htm
http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/blm/co/10/chap6.htm
http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/blm/co/10/chap7.htm
http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/blm/co/10/chap8.htm
I think the retired general was probably Kit Carson.
Mike
daveklepperSo the second part of the question is still up for grabs. Otto Mears never got financial help from an important connection, but lots of cooperation becuase his lines were feeders of traffic. One friend was a retired General. The cooperation of the longest surviving railroad continued this kind of cooperation after Otto passed on. Including leasing locomotives.
Thank you for your understanding Dave.
Alan, Oliver & North Fork Railroad
https://www.buckfast.org.uk/
If you don't know where you are going, any road will take you there. Lewis Carroll English author & recreational mathematician (1832 - 1898)
So the second part of the question is still up for grabs. Otto Mears never got financial help from an important connection, but lots of cooperation becuase his lines were feeders of traffic. One friend was a retired General. The cooperation of the longest surviving railroad continued this kind of cooperation after Otto passed on. Including leasing locomotives.
I thought I would leave the harder part for someone else to answer. Besides, I don't think I would know what new question to ask.
You got the right name, now can you do the research and come up with the rest of the answer?
Second name: Mears.
In my perusals of the erstwhile D&RGW, and other Colorado early railroads, I remembered something about this pioneer.
http://www.ghostdepot.com/rg/history/otto%20mears.htm
Hint: First name Otto
2nd hint: Not born in USA, an immigrant
Who was the man referred to as "The Pathfinder" in Colorado, what were his first transportation activies, and why were they successful, and which railroads did he eventually promote into actual operation? Are any running today? Why? Why not?
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