We spent a week at Tiger Run RV Resort at Breckenridge CO for a rally of the FMCA 4 Wheelers. Jo and I had attended the rally there in 2011, where I led a history run over Boreas Pass. I led the same run this year. I got brochures on the pass and on the Denver South Park & Pacific RR for the folks who joined us. The first stop was at Rotary Snowplow Park in Breckenridge, where pieces of railroad equipment were on display. The next stop was at the Baker water tank.
The third stop was at the pass where the DSP&P built a section house, engine house, snowshed, turntable and water tank, among others. The section house has been restored, with a couple of other buildings. Boreas Pass (el.11,481) was named after the Greek god of the north wind, and we had a north wind while there.
This is the view from the section house across the road. The engine house and other related structures were where the fallen rock appears in the mid background.
Our next stop was at Como CO. It was an important division point for the DSP&P. Here is the hotel. David Tompkins in the foreground ( with his huge friendly dog) graciously gave us a tour of the depot next door and the nearby roundhouse.He owns the hotel and has operated it as a bed and breakfast, plus a restaurant. Both were closed this year. He is working on the restoration of the depot and the project is coming along well.
This is the last standing narrow gauge roundhouse in Colorado. Once this one had a total of19 bays for servicing locomotives. The other bays were built of wood, 10 of which were demolished in 1918 and 3 were burned in 1935, leaving the original part made of stone. It seems incongruous to be driving in the remote Colorado countryside on highway 285 and seeing this this roundhouse with just a tiny town nearby. The outside has been stabilized and restored.
Of course, a roundhouse needs a turntable. We were told by David that the rotating metal part had been moved to a manufacturing plant in Denver but has been returned to its original site.
David took us through the inside of the roundhouse. The car shown is DSP&P boxcar no. 608 built in 1880 and was once used as a summer home.
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