Coaches #9 and #10 - Page 2

HISTORY

Coaches #9 and #10 were out-shopped by the South Park’s Denver shops in April of 1880. As with coach-baggage #6, coach #7 and coach-baggage #8, they were probably assembled from parts obtained from an eastern car builder. The Union Pacific renumbered them as #57 and #58 in 1885, numbers they probably carried for several years under the Denver, Leadville & Gunnison.

In 1892, coach #9/57 was rebuilt as a combination coach-baggage car by the DL&G, and was renumbered in that category as #708. The next year (and probably almost simultaneously, if the conversion of #9 took place in the winter of '92 and that of #10 just into the new year) #10 was similarly rebuilt as a combination coach-baggage car. Business was not exactly booming for the South Park and a combination coach-baggage car allowed the road to eliminate the baggage car from a train and reduce both dead weight and the cost of maintenance.

When the Colorado & Southern took over in 1899, coach-baggage #708 went on their roster as #128. Coach-baggage #709 was not renumbered, having rolled over and burned on 27 December of the prior year near Alpine Tunnel—during one of the worst winters on record.

Coach-baggage #128 was put on broad-gauge trucks and leased to the Great West Sugar Company 6 October 1903. We don't know how long they kept it, but the records show that when the C&S renumbered in 1906, coach-baggage #128 became C&S #29. It was rebuilt by the C&S in 1915.

Either upon its conversion to a combination car, or at some time up to and including 1915, its windows were converted from arched single-pane windows to squared-off double pane ones. The end window beside the stove was filled in (the window space at the right end in photo #5), and the second window from the end on the opposite side was filled-in, apparently to enlarge the lavatory area (see photo #4).

Sometime after 1916 (the latest “corrected” date on the C&S passenger car diagram for coach-baggage #29), the window nearest the baggage compartment on the left side (photo #5) was covered over. This appears to have been done when another stove was added to the car. Since Car #29 was one of the last to be dismantled, it is quite likely it was used as a crew car or tool car, probably having the partition between the baggage and passenger compartments removed and the new stove added for more heating capacity.

C&S combination coach-baggage #29 was dismantled in November 1942 after more than 60 years of service.

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