Equipment
Baggage Cart
For many four years we have been trying to
purchase a 1920 -1930s built baggage
cart from Ken Kafka a friend of our
society, who lives in Pierce, Colorado.
Ken has had the baggage cart for over
20 years and has until recently had no
inclination to part with it. The baggage
cart has sat next to Ken’s Great Western
Railroad “Dinky” switch engine.
For some reason Ken was in the right
frame of mind to part with it. Both of
us agreed on a purchase price and we
owned this really neat cart. The history
of this cart is that it was owned by the
Union Pacific and was used at the
Cheyenne depot until passenger trains
stopped running (including AMTRAK)
in the 1980s. It was sold off with a
number of others, and made its way
down to Pierce after a couple of
different ownerships.
In a request to the members of the
Board of Directors for contributions to
pay for the cart, we had a large number
step forward and donate to the cause.
As the donations we had was about
half what we needed, Wayne Kemp
stepped up to the plate and covered
the remaining amount due.
As we had to remove it from Pierce to
restore it, arrangements were made with
Marlin Uhrich at the Uhrich Steam Engine
Locomotive Works to repair the cart in
his wood working shop. Again another
dedicated members stepped forward to
assist in the move to Strasberg.
Doug Hesbol offered to supply the
trailer to move it, along with driving
his vehicle to tow it over to Marlin's. As
the cart is rather heavy, we need some
muscle power to get it on and off the
cart. Both Doug Cohn and Wayne Kemp
assisted Doug Hesbol, Ken Kafka and I
in loading and unloading the cart.
If any member would like to help restore
this great old cart please let us know, as
we welcome any help we can get.
We intend to restore it and loan it on
permanent display to the Calhan Depot.
It will become a "Rock Island" baggage
cart as we have no idea where we can
obtain an original one. Railroads sold
equipment to each other all the time,
so who knows maybe if the "Rock"
needed a baggage cart and the UP
had this as surplus it could have gone
south to Calhan.
