Western Railroad Discussion > Lyons, CO

Why are there two bay windows?    Depot made from some of the hardest sandstone.

Gus

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Joint line use ?

Posted from Android

Looking at the pictures provided with the post I only see one bay window. Is there a missing picture?

Bay windows on both sides.  Didn’t get a clear shot of the north side of depot.
 

many depots did this

trainman Wrote:
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> Joint line use ?
>
> Posted from Android

Wasn't this joint UP and C&S, if I recall correctly.  My books are 1250 miles away at the moment!  I'm actually closer to that depot!  Some please clarify for us.

Rob

CB&Q

> > Joint line use ?

> Wasn't this joint UP and C&S, if I recall correctly.

To my knowledge, Lyons was always only a single-RR town.  In modern times, it was CB&Q, later BN - the last station on a branch that came up from the Denver area via Longmont.

Take care,

Mark  

The other bay window is a drive-thru for Starbuck's.

Lyons, Colorado has an earlier railroad history than the CB&Q. In 1885, the Denver, Utah & Pacific RR was completed from Denver to Lyons. It was an early narrow gauge operation of David Moffat. Its main traffic was sandstone from the quarries at Lyons. In Sept. 1889 the railroad was leased by the CB&Q subsidiary the Burlington & Missouri River RR and immediately converted to standard gauge. I have in my collection several paper items from the DU&P such as waybills, letters and an 1886 annual pass. For more info. see Hilton's book American Narrow Gauge.
Dick Ebright
Roosevelt, Utah
 

Lyons Colorado, home of the Stone Mountain Railroad & Quarry Company which in 1890 quickly built over 4 miles of standard gauge track.  This company began just east of Lyons and built northward through a double switchback to gain elevation from 5300 feet to a notch at Noland of 6000 feet.  The Lima Machine Works at Lima, Ohio sold their Construction Number 319 to the new company.  It was shipped destine Longmont, CO on December 17, 1890.  It was a 37-ton two-truck geared locomotive with 3 vertical cylinders with 10” diameter and 11” stroke.  The pistons drove a drive shaft with universals on the right side of the engine, geared onto the four 29.5” diameter wheels. This was a new design of locomotive patented by Ephraim Shay of Harbor Springs, Michigan, that proved successful for operating on steep grades, such as this quarry railroads.
The railroad continued moving large volume of the red sandstone until 1895 when the company sold or was reorganized as the Noland Land & Transfer Company and continued to use the single Shay locomotive for the next ten years when they purchased another similar but larger locomotive also from Lima Locomotive Co. shipped July 7, 1905.  The No. 2 was construction No. 1531 and was also a two-truck Shay type with 11” by 12” cylinders and 32” wheels.  These locomotives now were operating over 6+ miles of trackage reaching numerous quarry sites along and crossing the border of Boulder and Larimer County three times.  The demand and interest in the red sandstone lost popularity and the advent of the World War I caused the company to shut down, and was put up for sale in 1914. The Shay No. 2 was an identical 45-ton design as Uintah #2 Shay #939 built a year earlier in 10/1904.

The entire railroad and its two engines were sold to the Allen Coal Company but that is another story for later post.