Coach-baggage #5

CCRR	U.P. 1885	UPD&G 1890/97	C&S 1899	C&S 1906	DIM 1930
#5	#735	#735 / #45	#120	#21	“Caboose” #903

(1) Coach-baggage #5 at Guy Gulch siding in lower Clear Creek Canyon, 1884. Lachlan McLean photo at Digerness3-368(d) and Kindig-48.

DESCRIPTION

Coach-baggage car #5 had eight moderately arched, double pane windows to the passenger side of the baggage door (at least one of which was probably in the baggage compartment) and one window to the other side. These windows had a panel between them a bit wider than on #6. The baggage door had rounded upper corners and extended more than halfway up through the letterboard. The clerestory windows were in sets of three with a panel in between the sets. The platform roofs appear to have been of the bullnose configuration from the very beginning: the first on the Colorado Central.

(2) Union Pacific, Denver & Gulf coach-baggage car #45 and coach #190 [contra caption] on the Georgetown Loop high bridge in the late 1890s. This photo can be found at Kindig-233(d). Note #45 still has two windows in the baggage compartment (though one appears to be blocked-up.

HISTORY

Combination coach-baggage #5 was built by the Golden City shops of the Colorado Central in November of 1877. It was renumbered #735 by the Union Pacific in 1885, and apparently retained that number under the Union Pacific, Denver & Gulf. But in the 1897 renumbering it became #45.

Chappell ^{^5} says this car must have been the first to be lettered for the C&S —

“On December 15, 1898, it was changed to No. 120 and initialed for ‘C&S’. As the new company was not incorporated until four days later, it makes a researcher wonder if the relettering of this car might have been some kind of commemorative observance of the day the new company was started on its way? ”

When the C&S renumbered in 1906, coach-baggage #120 became C&S #21.

According to Chappell: ^{^4}

“After the [Alpine] tunnel was closed in October 1910, a tri-weekly train was scheduled to make runs from Buena Vista up the Chalk Creek valley to St. Elmo, Romley and Hancock, as there was still considerable traffic from the mines of that region. Westward they still bore the old designation Train No. 94, eastward Train No. 93.”

Combination car #21 was used on this run until May 1917, when it was replaced by coach-baggage #22. Also during this time #21 was rebuilt by the C&S and had its end platform removed from the baggage end.

(3) C&S #21 on Alma Branch, 6 September 1926. Photo at Kindig-300(u), Poole-171, and online (Image OP-6249 in the Denver Public Library’s Western History Collection).

C&S combination car #21 was retired 28 July 1930, and the body sold to the Denver & Intermountain Railroad, where it was mounted on 30" gauge freight trucks and became their “caboose” #903.

Passenger Cars of the Colorado Central

Coach-baggage #5

DESCRIPTION

HISTORY

Continued

28 May 2007