Nostalgia & History > FoggFile: Texas Zephyr power in Boulder, CO

Another shot by Howard Fogg, this one of Texas Zephyr unit leading a train out of Boulder toward Denver, no date, but probably an excursion run circa 1965.

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Nice one, but whenever I see a photo like this in this area I think of the tragic head-on in 1958 at Broomfield. I think the fireman on the passenger was P.J. Loughrey (sp?)- don't recall the old engineers name. Many C&S veterans still recalled that in the 1970's as well as the head on near Chugwater WY in 59? and a big pile up at Mt. Dora, NM around the same time.

Somewhere I have clippings from the newspapers and photos taken by C&S station agent / operator Glen Tucker who retired out of Windsor in the early 1980's. Glen worked Mt. Dora and Leadville among other stations until holding down Windsor for many years.

Another head-on occured at Broomfield in the 80's near the same spot as the one in '58 I believe. Although it was after I left the area and before I came back so was a little out of touch.

Long live the C&S !

That sure looks like 9952A (the dent in the pilot doors gives her away), now known again by her original identity, CB&Q 9911A and alive and very well, thank you, at Illinois Railway Museum. Here she sits in Chicago Union Station September 22, 2012 after completing her first of two round trips to West quincy, MO.

If you unbolted the blank nameplate behind the cab door and flipped it over, you'd find the name SILVER PILOT still on the other side, as we did at IRM some years after this photo was taken.

Thanks for the look back,

NZ

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In June 1965, Colorado was hit by massive storms, including tornadoes. The flooding essentially cut Denver in half, only one bridge was left standing across Cherry Creek in downtown Denver. All rail lines east of the city were damaged, so the Front Range line got called into heavy duty. I was living in Longmont at the time, and used to go down to the Colorado & Southern station to watch the Zephyrs roll by. They actually stopped at the station, so I guess one could have "commuted" to Denver. Must have been a dispatcher's nightmare, with no double track and not a lot of strategically-located passing sidings then. The old semaphore at the Longmont station probably got a major workout.

Should have added that the storm system also impacted rail lines to the south of Denver as well, hence the appearance of the TZ in Boulder. My uncle ran a produce stand in town, his watermelon delivery from Texas had to be trucked east through Kansas, up to Nebraska, west to Cheyenne, then down to Longmont.

I covered that flood for the Rocky Mountain News and for weeks afterwards spent every free daylight moment on the Joint Line, photographing detoured Rock Island traffic. For the first few days after the flood, RI Denver traffic detoured over UP via Cheyenne. It was a lesson in railroad flexibility.

dendavis Wrote:
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> Should have added that the storm system also
> impacted rail lines to the south of Denver as
> well, hence the appearance of the TZ in Boulder.
> My uncle ran a produce stand in town, his
> watermelon delivery from Texas had to be trucked
> east through Kansas, up to Nebraska, west to
> Cheyenne, then down to Longmont.



Okay, I have to ask - how in the world did the Texas Zephyr, between Denver and Dallas come to operate north of Denver on the C&S to Cheyenne? What routing did the TZ take, and how many hours late was it? Wow.

Lee Hower - Sacramento

You mean the Denver Zephyr?

WAF Wrote:
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> You mean the Denver Zephyr?

If this is the DZ, it makes far more logical sense than the Texas Zephyr!

prob an excursion

train1275 Wrote:

> Nice one, but whenever I see a photo like this in
> this area I think of the tragic head-on in 1958 at
> Broomfield. I think the fireman on the passenger
> was P.J. Loughrey (sp?)- don't recall the old
> engineers name.

Frank Johnson was the passenger engineer, Fred Tingle was the freight engineer, both perished along with Loughry. See:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dplwesternhistory/5884792735/
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=mvtVAAAAIBAJ&sjid=teIDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6524%2C3536106

in my initial post I speculated that this probably was an excursion and I found thus from a web search that also showed a couple pics:


Color image of the Texas Zephyr train north of Cherry Street in Fort Collins. From image owner Jim Burrill: "In the winter of 1965 or early 1966, the National Railway Historical Society sponsored a roundtrip excursion over the 'Colorado and Southern' (BNSF Front Range division now) between Denver and Ft. Collins. The equipment was from the recently discontinued Texas Zephyr which ran between Denver and Dallas, I believe. The beautiful train came up from Denver, turned on the wye and parked for a short time in front of the C&S freight depot (now the transit center) before going south again."

it may not have discontinued till 67, someone said they used the equipment during the layover.

but they may have just used other stuff for the reg TZ which was short by then.