Colorado & Southern Steam 1950s/1960s

Rare vintage footage of steam on the rarely filmed Colorado and Southern Railway. The Colorado and Southern was a regional class 1 railroad which was a subsidiary of the Burlington Route (CB&Q Railroad), and mainly operated from Guernsey, Wyoming south through Denver, Colorado Springs, Trinidad, and connected with the Fort Worth & Denver (also a CB&Q Subsidiary) in northern Texas. This rare film footage comes primarily from two sources, an unknown photographer from the area and noted railfan photographer Everett Rohrer. Area railfans have helped identify locations.

We begin our C&S journey in the mid-1950s. There is 2-8-0 action switching in Denver as well as fan trips and other areas where engines worked on branch lines and other terminals such as Trinidad and Fort Collins. Also shown is a fan trip which was a charter by well-known enthusiast and author Jim Ehrenberger, who sponsored a trip from Cheyenne to Guernsey, WY with 2-10-2 number 900 in July of 1959. Jim recently did an article on this trip in Classic Trains Spring 2010! Another interesting segment is two separate visits to Leadville to see this region. The first is a brief one during the winter and shows a few scenes of engine 638. This engine was later sent to Denver to be shopped and ran excursions, becoming the last active C&S steamer in December 1962. It’s replacement 641 is also seen on a second visit switching cars. 641 was also seen in regular work at places like Denver before this in some of the films. 641 at Leadville became the last steam locomotive to operate for a class 1 standard gauge railroad in the United States.

The 8mm film comprises approximately 65% of the program, and rest is 16mm footage shot by Everett Rohrer which was a complete reel of C&S steam. There is lots of switching action especially around Denver and vicinity, and includes some of the 2-8-2’s, that came from the Burlington. In fact there are two different groups shown, the 4994 for example, and the others that were renumber 806,807,809, etc. In addition to this switching service both groups of films include lots of fan trip action, including some of the last engines that operated for the C&S. As an addition to the Cheyenne material we also have shots of a train that was diesel powered, but had a 2-10-2 helper on the rear with 903. This was shot by Alan Pommer. There is background information on most of the engines shown, which includes builder dates, and scrapping dates of each engine. As with most films like these there is no train sounds, so we have plenty of interesting narration, and background music to accompany the films.