Coach-baggage #6
DESCRIPTIONColorado Central coach-baggage #6 was a bit of a thing, certainly less than 40'-0" overall with end platforms at both ends. It had six double pane windows and a square-topped baggage door that extended up about ¾ of the way into the letterboard. The platform roofs were of the broken duckbill variety with flat eaves, like those on the early CC cars and if the date in Digerness’ caption is to be believed, kept them well into the 20th century.
HISTORYCoach-baggage car #6 was out-shopped February 1878 by the Colorado Central’s shops at Golden. At 32'-4" over end-sills, it was slightly smaller than coach-baggage #5 (33'-2"), which preceded it, but nevertheless larger than coaches #3 and #4 (30'-9"), built earlier by those same shops. When the Union Pacific renumbered cars in 1885, coach-baggage #6 became #736, a number it kept when the Union Pacific, Denver & Gulf was organized in 1890. When that road renumbered certain cars in 1897, it was renumbered #46. When the C&S took over in 1899, coach-baggage #46 became C&S #121. When the C&S renumbered cars in 1906, coach-baggage #121 became #20. Coach-baggage #20 was rebuilt in 1915, and lost its baggage-end platform if it hadn’t earlier. On 24 February 1925, coach-baggage #20 was designated a wrecking outfit car and renumbered #025. After 16 years as an outfit car, #025 was cleaned up, renumbered #20 again, and donated to the Central City Opera House Association, together with locomotive #71 and gondola car #4319. They were hauled up the canyon to Black Hawk 10 April 1941 by locos #69 and #70 (photo at Wagner-61). There they sat for awhile before being trucked to Central City, tracks having been removed in 1931.
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