From the Winter 2023 Issue
Englewood Train Depot
The Santa Fe depot 3090 S. Galapago St: The station was built in 1915 as one of 50 "mission style" by the railroad. This is one of only 2 left. It served the military at Fort Logan, the local flower growers and many local manufacturers and businesses until 1975 when the railroad decided to close it. It was saved from destruction in 1994 by the old Englewood Historical Society and moved to its current location when RTD decided to build the Santa Fe corridor light rail. Much more...
McKeen Motor Car
The McKeen Motor Car came about when, in 1904, President Edward Harriman of the Union Pacific Railroad was concerned about the high cost of running passenger and mixed freight trains on low volume branch lines. As such, he turned to his chief mechanical engineer, William R.
McKeen, for solutions. His answer was a mechanically driven self-propelled railcar. "McKeen wanted something revolutionary, and he certainly got it. He was an early devotee of integral construction — the side members assisting the floor beams in bearing weight. The cars were to be lowslung (one to two feet lower than standard) and (although the word had not yet been invented) streamlined." More...
Fairmont Speeder
As our Fairmont Speeder (serial number 17551) has come back from being upgraded, I felt that a brief history of his attempts might be in order. Our speeder was an MC13 model and was delivered to the Chicago Rock Island and Pacific Railway on November 25th, 1945. It was assigned to the Harrington, Kansas location. What is rather interesting is that it was delivered by the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad instead of in-line interchange. Harrington, Kansas was the Motor Car Maintenance facility for repair and delivery facility of the Rock Island in the 1940s. More...
How the D&RGW Caused the Antlers Hotel Fire
October 1st, 1898, was a warm Indian Summer day in Colorado Springs with some strong wind gusts throughout the late morning. The wind was blowing at the rate of about forty-five miles an hour from the southwest. Down at the Denver and Rio Grande Freight House located at the foot of Cucheras Street, a switch engine was moving a string of wooden box cars to another location and passing the wooden dock of the freight house. It later was presumed that the area under the dock had a goodly amount of fools’ cap, excelsior, and wastepaper under the decking of the wooden dock. It was surmised that a spark from the steam engine was blown by the wind unto the mass of debris under the dock. The fire was first spotted at about 2:10 p.m. More...
And much more...
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