Coach-Baggage #1 - Auraria

DESCRIPTION

Car #1—the first passenger car acquired by the South Park—was a combination coach-baggage car with an oval name panel centered on the car. While early cars are thought to have had board and batten siding, there is no evidence of it in any of the identifiable photos of this car. The passenger end had seven highly arched single-pane windows, which apparently opened downward. The baggage door was more-or-less centered on the baggage end with a suggestion of two windows between it and the passenger section and two between it and the end of the car.

Coach-baggage #1 looked rather like a 13 window coach with six windows filled in, the middle pair of which had been replaced by a narrow baggage door. This impression was intensified by a belt rail that ran the full length of the car (not just under the windows), and by the name panel being centered on the car, rather than between the door and the passenger end of the car, which would be the usual position, as on this Colorado Central car:
 

The square-topped baggage door extends up through the letter-board to the eave line. The platform roof has a hooded profile much like the later “Bowers-Dure” cars. It comes down to the eave line, and the roof apron is almost flat, rather than having an arch as on the car in the photo immediately above. In short, it looks more like an awning than the usual overhang.

Coach-baggage #1 was either painted a deep brown (some say “chocolate” brown—but with differing eye as to what constitutes “chocolate”) or stained a medium brown. Lettering was of gold leaf with “stripes and trimming.”

Only 7'-7" wide, coach-baggage #1, probably had the two-and-one seating that was common to early narrow gauge cars. We can’t know for sure, because the first record we have—the 1885 renumbering list—rates capacity by the number of seats, of which coach-baggage #1 had 10. The C&S passenger car diagrams are no help, because they show 11 seats -- with one seat space taken up by a water cooler -- and rate the car at a seating capacity of 22. Four abreast seating in a car with an interior width of 6'-11" (83") would be real cozy.

HISTORY

First-class coach-baggage car #1 was built by Hallack & Bro. Lumber Company, to whom the South Park had let contracts for its first freight cars. The Denver Daily Times of March 18, 1874 reported the railroad had contracted with Halleck for construction of 40 freight cars, one first class passenger car, and one first class baggage car. ^{36}

Hallack & Brother was a lumber, millwork and hardware firm, with no experience at building anything. Why did they get the contract? Perhaps it had something to do with the brothers being major stockholders in the South Park. (Poor shows E.F. Hallack as a Director of the Corporation in 1879.^{34})

The railroad’s annual report for 1874 says: ^{35}

But in fact, the early cars Hallack built (freight as well as passenger cars) were probably constructed from assemblies obtained from eastern car builders. Most car builders of the time built cars in pieces that could be conveniently shipped either overseas or domestically, and assembled on-site. Jackson & Sharp was one of these, and some believe they supplied the parts for the cars built by Hallack. Ron Rudnick reports finding a South Park Journal entry dated 15 October 1874 recording payment to Jackson & Sharp for several car parts ^{8} and notes the passenger car in photo #2 resembles the cars Jackson & Sharp built for the Rio Grande. It is also possible the assemblies were produced by Barney & Smith, as the South Park turned to them for their next major order of freight and passenger cars (1878).

Coach-baggage #1 was delivered to the South Park 7 July 1874, just one week after the Morrison line was officially opened, and was immediately pressed into service. For the next four years it was the only coach-baggage car owned by the South Park. In fact, it and coach #2 were the railroad's only passenger cars until May of 1878.

Several sources say coach-baggage car #1 was built in 1880 by the South Park. This information is based on the C&S passenger car diagram for C&S #22, which is obviously wrong. But then the purpose of these documents was not to be historically correct, but was to tell the engineering department how big each car was, how heavy, how many passengers could be carried, and other such mechanical information. Incidentally, coach-baggage #1 is the only car so attributed to the South Park.

Like most passenger cars of the time, coach-baggage #1 was given a name as well as a number. The South Park’s practice was to name cars for towns along the line or which they hoped to eventually reach. This very first car was named Auraria after Denver’s “twin city” on the west bank of Cherry Creek that eventually became the west side of Denver. (Not to be confused with Aurora, a modern-day eastern suburb.) It is perhaps appropriate that this first passenger car was named after the first “city” to be platted at the confluence of Cherry Creek and the South Platte River.

In 1885, at the Union Pacific renumbering, Auraria was renumbered #700, a number befitting its identity as a combination coach-baggage car in the U.P. numbering scheme. It kept that number after 1889 when the railroad became the Denver, Leadville and Gunnison.

During the 20 years between its construction and the 1898 date of the next photo, coach-baggage #700 was rebuilt in a number of ways, not necessarily at the same time.  But it kept its characteristic flat-topped, roof-high baggage door and its end platforms at both ends.

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