12-31-2008, 06:34 PM
The "poster town" for what you have outlined was Cripple Creek, Colorado, which at it's zenith had no less than eight railroads serving it in one way or another and an electric tram line connecting various mining districts.
High-grade gold ore was originally shipped to refineries in Florence, Colo., until it became more practical to refine on site after which gold bars were shipped out as well as silver. (the silver ingots were stack four to five feet high and left on the depot loading dock in plain sight, waiting to be picked up!) The best part was that at an altitude of ten thousand feet, Cripple Creek provided almost nothing that it needed, thus requiring everything from whiskey to timbers to tools to clothing to food to furniture to heating coal to be shipped in by rail, and people had almost no viable option but to travel the same way.
The interchanges were at Florence and Denver with the standard gauge outfits like the D&RG. From Florence, the rails proceeded westward through the Royal Gorge, a one thousand foot deep canyon carved out by thge Arkansas River, home to the only hanging railroad bridge in America which is still in use today.
Until I got bitten by a different bug, my plan was to model the Phantom Canyon route of the Florence and Cripple Creek RR, which would have allowed for early oil tank cars - Florence was once an oil producing center - and coal trains from the early coal mining towns south of Florence, as well as all of the other traffic. This plucky little narrow gauge line climbed five thousand feet in twenty-two miles at an average grade of 4% and a final grade of 6%, and no geared locomotives were ever used. It is still a challenging and awe inspiring drive up the old RR grade!
This area was definitely one-stop shopping for any turn-of-the-century modeler.
High-grade gold ore was originally shipped to refineries in Florence, Colo., until it became more practical to refine on site after which gold bars were shipped out as well as silver. (the silver ingots were stack four to five feet high and left on the depot loading dock in plain sight, waiting to be picked up!) The best part was that at an altitude of ten thousand feet, Cripple Creek provided almost nothing that it needed, thus requiring everything from whiskey to timbers to tools to clothing to food to furniture to heating coal to be shipped in by rail, and people had almost no viable option but to travel the same way.
The interchanges were at Florence and Denver with the standard gauge outfits like the D&RG. From Florence, the rails proceeded westward through the Royal Gorge, a one thousand foot deep canyon carved out by thge Arkansas River, home to the only hanging railroad bridge in America which is still in use today.
Until I got bitten by a different bug, my plan was to model the Phantom Canyon route of the Florence and Cripple Creek RR, which would have allowed for early oil tank cars - Florence was once an oil producing center - and coal trains from the early coal mining towns south of Florence, as well as all of the other traffic. This plucky little narrow gauge line climbed five thousand feet in twenty-two miles at an average grade of 4% and a final grade of 6%, and no geared locomotives were ever used. It is still a challenging and awe inspiring drive up the old RR grade!
This area was definitely one-stop shopping for any turn-of-the-century modeler.