Nostalgia & History > Colo. & Wyo.+ CBQ and C&S: Guernsey WY 53 Years Ago

These images were recorded on film 53 years ago this month in the Guernsey WY area.  The Ektachrome slides were all seriously overexposed from the get-go, so the restoration results are not perfect; however, they’re better than what I started with.
 
In August 1963, the Colorado & Wyoming’s Northern Division operated 6.3 miles from the mine at Sunrise to the CB&Q yard at Guernsey.  The raw ore loaded at Sunrise was billed to Minnequa CO, and the C&S handled this traffic in their mixed freights that worked in and out of Guernsey.
 
1) Sunrise WY, probably performing an air test.  Looks like some effort was made to keep GP7 103 looking sharp considering red dust coated everything..

2) & 3) Two shots of shiny 103 and train enroute to Guernsey; no dynamics and loads downhill.  The track has been removed, but you can still drive on part of the old ROW (at least I did last summer).
 

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4) Another train enroute shot.
5) & 6) Engine 103 and homemade caboose 103 entering the west end of the yard at Guernsey.
 

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7) CB&Q No. 31, the Alliance-Casper passenger train behind E7 9926-B, caught me by surprise.
8) One of the C&S diesel “mallets”, with 702-D on the west end, laying over at Guernsey. 
 

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thanks for the history lesson. any idea what the 12" track in the foreground of picture #1 was used for?? TIA dave, out.

Great shots but the shot of the F's deserves a Gold Star with an oak leaf cluster!

YY
 

Double Y that might be true but the C&W shots are freaking beyond rare, don't think I've
ever seen on the line shots from up there. Amazing!

Out

Very nice - Guernsey was not like that even by the first time I ran there in 1979 when the Orin Line opened up. I arranged with the Colorado & Wyoming guys for a cab ride back and forth during one of my sometimes-lengthy layovers at the D-Bar-B "Hotel". But one or two trips later, the whole C&W operation folded! I only have one shot of the unit and caboose sitting at the west end of the "old" yard in Guernsey. Sure wish I could have ridden up the line! And yes, great shot of the F's with the SD kicker. === === = === JLH



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/25/16 12:43 by highgreengraphics.

Great historic views. Old Ektachrome can be hard to work with, but these are well done. My favorites are image two with the train along the line and your last image of the CB&Q lashup. 
Thanks for posting these.
Bob

very cool images ... the Q in Wyoming ... what type of raw ore was mined at this location ??? ... what was the elevation of this line and how many cars were allowed since the unit was a non dynamic ??? ...

Great photos of the shortline railroad often overlooked. Unfortuantely it was thru before I got a chance to slip up there. Sunrise was an iron ore mine which, as mentioned, supplied ore to the mill at Pueblo, (CF&) Minnaqua..

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY

Awesome shots of an obscure operation. A very short part of the branch to Sunrise is still in place at the west end of Guernsey yard. It's labeled as the "Sunrise Lead" if I recall correctly. There is a loading platform at the end of it for off loading equipment, and the track is used for when the RIP tracks are being switched. I've also occasionally seen a tank car spotted there, I'm assuming it's for chemicals used in dust abatement since I don't recall there being any placards on it, and it was mainly during the summer when a car would be there, usually for about a week or so. A majority of the old C&W grade out of Guernsey is labeled as "Tank Track" on a lot of maps, and the National Guard uses it to get their heavier equipment out to the areas where they do drills.I understand a majority of the buildings at Sunrise are gone, but of the surviving brick buildings the engine house is still there. The area is closed off, but I read somewhere the fellow who keeps an eye on the property is good about showing visitors around if he is contacted before hand. Not sure of who this fellow is and how true the statement is (something I ran across on someone's history blog if I recall). The Sunrise mine property was also for sale a few years ago. 

I've also found reference and have seen traces of a grade that ran out of Guersney to the Chicago Mine at a place called Ironton which was on the opposite of the ridge from the Sunrise Mine. What little I've found mentions it being pulled out in the 1920's. This branch left from the top of the wye in Guernsey at the end east of the "old yard". Not sure if it was affiliated with the C&W or a CB&Q branch. Also there was a shay and a railroad utilized in the building of Guersney Dam, but I'm not sure where the material was being hauled from and where the grade was for the railroad to reach the dam site. 

Tim Stricker
Gillette, WY

The C&W had both the Northern Division as photographed here, and the Southern Division, which ran west out of Pueblo. Raw iron ore was hauled out of both, and I remember many of the same old 70-ton hoppers as shown in these views going through Cheyenne when I moved there in 1972 that were placarded "Sunrise Iron Ore". Even now, a lot of the bridge timbers and right-of-way are still stained red from the years of raw ore leaking out the bottom of those old hoppers, the switch was never made to pelletized iron ore, called taconite. Even though the C&W is torn out, there are still ore deposits around Sunrise, northwest of Guernsey, as well as at aptly-named Iron Mountain at Farthing, WY north of Horse Creek, so who knows what the future might bring?
An interesting note, the C&W lastly joined the BN off a curve near the east end of the sizeable North Platte River bridge. At one time, the line passed beneath that bridge on the east side of the river, and they had their own trestle at an angle across the North Platte River, then it became remote and joined the C&S at a wye around a curve 4 miles away from Wendover, the old grade is easily followed on Google earth, and one can see the wye embankments when driving into Wendover. I do not know what year the bridge and that line segment were removed. === === = === JLH

Awesome.  I like pic 6 with the homemade caboose.  Up the stairs to the outhouse!  That must have been fun during a Wyoming winter...

Oh, I sure do like the Burlington  photos ! Especially #31. First photo I've seen of it.
    Thanks for posting.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/25/16 19:31 by UP951West.

Interesting historical details, great stuff.

Good stuff, thanks for posting.  It sure doesn't look like that today!

Nick Tharalson,
Marion, IA



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/30/16 12:48 by ntharalson.

At the east end of the old yard there was a short spur to the north BN loaded ballast from. I think it was 3% or 4% grade. You shoved 25 or so of those wooden side 34' two bay hoppers up the grade to a flat for loading. Those 55 ton cars were loaded to the top chord where the probably weighed out to 70 tons or more. BN could not seem to understand why 100 of these over weight reo cars suffered center sill failures.

Anyway the crew went up the hill with a single SD9 to get the loads. After coupling up the train was charged and a full air test was done. Any cars which did not set had a handbrake tied. After the brakes were released the cars were allowed to fully charge.

When it was time to leave the engineer opened the throttle and set 10# of air. As the engine approached the yard switch the air was set to 26# and if the rail was wet the air might need to be dumped to stop short. Sure the SD9 had a set of dynamic brakes but once you got under 15 mph these were not very effective.

I chased the C&W a couple of times when I was forced to work the Guernsey Goat. I even spent a couple of nights bunked out in the old gas electric body grounded near the roho which was the original engineers' bunkhouse but there were too many mice and spiders living inside to do it more than just to say I had done it.

Posted from Android

Never knew about this, thanks for posting.  The image restoration was great.