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colver |
photos taken early 90's
notice the boxcar converted into a storage area, right.
looking toward the big white engine house; entering Colver from the north - office just ahead, left of the track.
looking from the car shop and the middle of the yard.
the car shops, front and back
office
For 11 more Colver photos, click here
An epilog/editorial - 2001: Since the railroad shut down in the summer of '94, this area has been more or less neglected. Everything used to be neat and in its place, the grass near the office finely trimmed. Now everything is overgrown, the tracks torn up and the storage tanks salvaged... not a pretty sight. It's sad, and the worst part is that most of the windows in the various buildings have been broken by ignorant, stupid little vandals. The old freight office (building in center of top left photo) was burned down by an arsonist or arsonists. The C&I yards, along with the town of Colver, are included in the National Register of Historic Places. The little punks who have engaged in this vandalism have no respect for this fact or for the legacy of this once-mighty short line railroad that employed so many area people over most of the last century. (For many years, the C&I produced more revenue per mile of track that any other railroad in the nation.) The photo below was taken in late March, 2001:
Notice the co-generation plant on the hill in the background. It burns the immense waste coal piles left over from the Colver mining operations. (Water quality in mine acid-polluted Elk Creek has already improved dramatically from the refuse recovery effort.)
One bright spot: Part of the car shops are now being used by Damian Hantz Locomotive Service, wheel and axle division.
The two photos appearing below were also taken in late March, 2001. A metal cut-out of an SW1500 locomotive painted to look like C&I #17 used to be attached to the middle of the gear. It was removed when the railroad shut down.
