North Central Colorado
- Thread starter JimDep
- Start date
Thanks W, Evan, Mr. Scott, Gisa, Bryan and Ed.
Much appreciated.
Hi Bryan,
The 1954 version will have that old trackbed back in service. It will extend east another 6 miles picking up gondolas filled with sugar beets during the fall campaigns. The missing bridge will be a wood trestle, similar to other local C&S bridges of that time period.
Much appreciated.
Hi Bryan,
The 1954 version will have that old trackbed back in service. It will extend east another 6 miles picking up gondolas filled with sugar beets during the fall campaigns. The missing bridge will be a wood trestle, similar to other local C&S bridges of that time period.
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I see the stimulus package hasn't made it to your end of the country yet, (or anywhere else for that matter!)
Well..... I hear help is on the way. It is rumored that Colorado State University will get several million dollars of the stimulus money to help Nancy Pelosi with her research for protecting the San Francisco area marsh field mouse.
I'm not sure however, how this benefits the surrounding community. I'll ask around.
Ed, one of your finer qualities is that nothing gets past you.
I don't find this very entertaining either, and I'm certainly not trying to depress or offend anyone. That's the
way it is.
When you see this stuff first hand, it's one of those "We report, you decide" kind of things.
I don't find this very entertaining either, and I'm certainly not trying to depress or offend anyone. That's the
way it is.
When you see this stuff first hand, it's one of those "We report, you decide" kind of things.
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Sounds great Jim. I look forward to that version as well, but all in its own time whenever you're ready.
Thanks Betsy and Bryan. I hope you're having a great weekend
Bryan, I going to be getting started on the '54 version ASAP. It will be far less depressing!
:hehe:
I don't think your route is depressing at all. Times change and it brings out the beauty of what there is, sometimes we have to look harder through the mountain of shells to find the pearl, but it is there...somewhere.
illinoiscentral
SARM Volunteer
Is that who I think it is on that trailer?:hehe:
Great shots Jim, Ed is right, almost too realistic...
Great shots Jim, Ed is right, almost too realistic...
Michael_Evans
thread killer
Nice job Jim, I find it funny that you have a Obama hope poster in the window of a foreclosed home. Some comic relief in that depressing scene.
illinoiscentral
SARM Volunteer
Do they have one of those poster at the local gas station?:hehe:
$2.46 Here in Jamestown Tennessee.
Thank God Obama is doing what he said he would do.
But this subject is pushing the CoC rules...
$2.46 Here in Jamestown Tennessee.
Thank God Obama is doing what he said he would do.
But this subject is pushing the CoC rules...
Times change and it brings out the beauty of what there is, sometimes we have to look harder through the mountain of shells to find the pearl, but it is there...somewhere.
Bryan, that is really a great attitude to have and thanks for sharing. When I originally moved here in the '80's, the scenery was much closer to what it looked liked during the 1950's than what it does now.
Not surprisingly, I much prefer what this area was like when I first moved here.
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A little background history:
Before the U.S. began importing sugar from the southern hemisphere cheaper than what was grown locally, the counties of Larimer and Weld in north central Colorado produced 1/3 of the sugar used in the U.S. from sugar beets.
The Great Western Railway and the Colorado & Southern provided the necessary transport from the farming fields to the sugar factories quick enough to get them unloaded before the the beets would lose the sugar content (metabolize). The efficient logistics of this process provided the communities a good and stable economy for most of the 20th century.
The first set of pics is a former sugar beet dump and small community called "Kluver" along the C&S branch. The beets were transported to the Fort Collins Great Western sugar beet factory that used to be located along Vine St, just west of the current BNSF North Yard.
After the factory shut down in the 1960's, unable to compete with foriegn sugar imports, the community of Kluver died off.
Through Trainz, I really look foward to bringing these abandoned branches back to something that looks close to what they once were.
I don't know if you can make it out, but there's a sugar beet conveyor that loaded sugar beets piled from huge stacks to the gondolas:
The Black Hollow Branch past the Larimer and Weld canal has been gone for 30 years, but thankfully still shows up on Google Earth.
From this pic, you can pick up the branch from Interstate 25, just north of Baker Lake, and follow it east as it bends downward, crosses Hwy 14 (Mulberry Ave) and curves east to Kluver, and then another couple miles east to where it dead ends at another former beat dump called "Woods" (end of track). A total of over 6 miles east of I-25:
From the County Line road heading south, this Google street view pic shows the bend at Kluver, with a white 3 rail fence that follows the radius of the former C&S rails. There's only a few places left east of the Larimer / Weld canal that still have the road bed intact. There are now a few newer homes where the old community once existed:
Here's another old pick of a high-rise used to dump sugar beets into the gondolas. The auto-loaders made these structures obsolete.
This last pic is the destination point for the beets that came west from the Black Hollow Branch. The GW Fort Collins factory on E. Vine St. was serviced by the C&S Railroad instead of the GWR. The GWR was used for all the other GW factories, with the exception of the GW Greeley factory that was serviced by the UP.
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Thanks, Michael.
What's unique about this foreclosed home ( not taken from the original home, but close) is that it has an Obama "Progess" poster in the window, rather than the more common "Hope" poster. It crossed my mind that they left in such a hurry that they forgot to take the poster with them
[Hi Woody,
Again, I don't want to offend anyone or get politically off topic. I respect everyone's view and understand the sensitivity involved. Hopefully, it can continue to be taken with a sense of humor.
To those who emailed me asking for the B.O. poster:
I have to add a disclosure in the readme file.
For a reason I can't explain, every time I try to center this object in Surveyor, it moves by itself to the far-left.
Thanks very much Sethmecs!
One thing I don't do enough of is take the time to compliment the talented works I see of Trainzers such as yourself, so anyway I appreciate your interest.
Here's my long winded response to a short question.
I've been working on this Colorado route, on and off for almost the last 5 years.
I was living in Massachusetts when TRS 2004 came out and decided to try to re-create the railroads of the north central Colorado area . Whatever tools I had on the east coast, especially trying to rely on my memory wasn't cutting it. What it did do was make me homesick and obsessed.
I'm fortunate to be living back here now and having access to all the resources mentioned on page 1, especially being able to get out to the remote areas with old railroad maps, a camera and digital recorder. Hopefully this response is a good cure for insomnia.
One thing I don't do enough of is take the time to compliment the talented works I see of Trainzers such as yourself, so anyway I appreciate your interest.
Here's my long winded response to a short question.
I've been working on this Colorado route, on and off for almost the last 5 years.
I was living in Massachusetts when TRS 2004 came out and decided to try to re-create the railroads of the north central Colorado area . Whatever tools I had on the east coast, especially trying to rely on my memory wasn't cutting it. What it did do was make me homesick and obsessed.
I'm fortunate to be living back here now and having access to all the resources mentioned on page 1, especially being able to get out to the remote areas with old railroad maps, a camera and digital recorder. Hopefully this response is a good cure for insomnia.
Hiya Jim,
Thanks again for the history lesson, I think it's great that people know what used to go on in the areas in which they live. Great pics and great background there.
There's a lot of rich timber history in the area where I live. It's interesting to read about life a hundred or more years ago.
Thanks again for the history lesson, I think it's great that people know what used to go on in the areas in which they live. Great pics and great background there.
There's a lot of rich timber history in the area where I live. It's interesting to read about life a hundred or more years ago.