POTD: Once and Future Glory

Our last POTD this week is from ...drum roll plea--nah, nevermind. It's Chris May again. But the theme has been a new way to look a things. Chris is good at making you look at things in a new way. He's not content to merely log photos as a scribe of the way things are; he's looking for ways to challenge himself creatively. That's what makes me a fan of his work.

The rusting cab of Denver & Rio Grande Western GP30 engine 3011 sits near the museum's
restoration roundhouse awaiting the day when she will be brought back to life again.
Photo: Christopher May

For today's photo, we return to the Colorado Railroad Museum on a different day, November 11, 2006. There is no title for it, but for me it speaks to the "once and future glory" that I believe in. Personal disclosure ahead, which may make you uncomfortable. You can skip to the next paragraph if you choose. A year to the day before Chris made this photograph, I was standing in front of over 1,000 people telling them about my young son's friendship with a six year-old girl, sharing the fun little things kids of that age do as a way of comforting them because that beautiful, vibrant and imaginative girl had passed away due to a freak medical condition that no one could have anticipated or avoided. She died 8 years ago today. Like the rusted locomotive hulk, her body was inanimate, decaying and breaking down even as we mourned that day. 

EMD GP30 illustration by Tom Fawell

Engine 3011 was a GP-30, a beautiful, vibrant and strong engine, one of the class that inspired the art of EMD's illustrator Tom Fawell. See how the power flows from it, the angular lines of the locomotive charging forward? That's the once part of the glory. The future part is when we see 3011 perched again on standard gauge rails shining with new paint and number boards looking for all the world like the day in 1961 when it rolled out of the plant. Or maybe, just maybe even hauling a passenger special for the museum. It's a picture of what my faith tells me is real.◊

POTD: Ghost Echoes of Steam Whistles Where Sunsets and Aspen Leaves Fall

You never know where you're going to run into a railroad. On the west side of Boreas Pass, not far from the roadbed of the Denver, South Park & Pacific narrow gauge railroad, Chris May took this beautiful sunset photograph of fall aspens and what I suspect to be Mount Lincoln, if not Quandary Peak, both 14ers above the fine resort town of Breckenridge.

Very little could seem to have changed from this sunset over Boreas Pass
to the time when the first steam whistles echoed over the Blue River Valley.
Photo: Christopher J. May

It could seem that the Denver, South Park and Pacific Railroad, later the Denver Leadville & Gunnison and then Colorado & Southern, is one of the "other" Colorado narrow gauge railroads, meaning not Denver & Rio Grande Western or Rio Grande Southern, two of the longest lived, most spectacular and most expansive narrow gauge railroads in America. But to think that they're the only roads would seem ...well, narrow minded.

The South Park, as it's called familiar, was considered a rival railroad to the Rio Grande for many years. Departing Denver for Waterton Canyon, it wended its way into its eponymous park by Kenosha Pass, where it built a roundhouse that still stands in Como. From there, a branch sprung across the Continental Divide over Boreas Pass to tap the mining towns of Breckenridge, Dillon, and a small mining hamlet called Keystone in Summit County.◊

Further Information

DSP&P Historical Society
DSP&P on Wikipedia
DSP&P for modelers

 

POTD - A New Way To See Things

It's been a while now since I've done some Photos of the Day, and it hasn't really been for lack of good photographs. I'm finding more, not less out there. Keep shooting and I'll keep posting!

D&RGW #683, the only standard gauge Rio Grande steam engine known to survive is
preserved at the Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden, Colorado. The first outdoor
exhibit most encounter at the museum, the engine is quite popular with the young (and
young at heart) who want to ring the engine's bell.
Photo: Christopher J. May

Chris May takes today's Photo of the Day with this half-portrait of Rio Grande engine 683. For me, the vertical lines of the stack and horizontal lines of the top of the pilot combine with the half-circles of the headlight and boiler to make it interesting. While the foreground is almost completely monochrome and in focus, the background is awash with soft colors of every natural hue. The engine has been photographed by May "countless times" but this shot just occurred to him on the way to the car. Proof that "there's always a new way to see things..." ◊

Product Review: Porcelain Herald

Like a lot of folks, I tend like a specific herald from my favorite railroad. But is it worth buying a version of it to keep? If so, how many are enough?

A railroad herald identifies the railroad company just like logos do today. They are a seal and a promise, if the railroad is run with precision and pride; a warning and a refusal if not. But for those who remember the railroads of yesterday, they're a way of recalling those memories, a symbol of what they miss and appreciate.

When shopping online, there are a lot of variables one can't really account for unless one knows the product or at least knows the retailer well enough to hazard a purchase. Everyone I know has at least one story of ordering something that just didn't turn out as advertised. I make use of product reviews now almost without exception. But in shopping for railroad gear, finding the reviews are sometimes futile and almost always don't tell you what you want to know. That's brings me to a very direct point. If you ever want to ask about a product I've reviewed or anything else, comment in and ask. I allow anonymous comments to make it easy for you. If nothing else, email me directly and I'll do my best to find it in my inbox and answer.

So, I like my railroad, and I wanted to add some personality to my home and possibly my future layout. A herald can do that. I also wanted to signal friends and acquaintances that might like the railroad as well. I kept my eyes peeled and, although I had found one at a museum, it was a particleboard back and I wanted something more durable.

In 2001, I took advantage of a last minute invitation Memorial Day weekend to drive with my then-5 year-old daughter to Durango to ride the Silverton train. Very good memories from that trip still warm my heart. The day before our trip, we hit the gift shop and I found the Rio Grande Main Line Thru the Rockies sign hanging above the checkout. It surprises me to admit it, but it meant something to be able to buy that sign in the same building that had doubtless held General Palmer and so many other railroad men and women over the years.

I was surprised when I took it down to feel how heavy it was. The sign was not aluminum or wood. It was a gauge of steel much heavier than the ventilation ducts and other materials I'd handled over the years. The grommets were mounted in holes that would accommodate most fasteners, and the porcelain meant to me that it would last for years without worrying about fading ink from sunlight or expanding particle board from water. It's held up this far and will likely outlast my lifetime, as far as I can tell. If you're a fan of a special railroad, it's worth showing off a little. You never know when you'll meet another railfan!

I wrote a review a year ago at Schrader's railroadcatalog.com site. It isn't the only place you can get the same porcelain herald, but it's one place I trust. My only wish is to be able to get more than one size. Between 150 - 200% larger would fit nicely as a centerpiece to some photographs.

As far as how many are enough, I know I won't get sick of looking at it anytime soon. So as many as you--or your family--can stand!◊