Leadville, Colorado & Southern RR

This is the Leadville, Colorado & Southern Railroad in Leadville, Co. The train is backed up the hill to Timberline,with a Diesel? We sure weren't thrilled with the diesel, it would have been a much neater ride with the old Colorado & Southern 2-8-0 No. 641engine. It is on display in front of the depot there, hopefully they will get it back and running in the near future! It was retired in June of 1960, still in very good condition. For economic reasons, in 1935 the small, but important C & S. RR abandoned its 150 miles of track to Leadville. Soon thereafter, the once-dominant Denver & Rio Grand quit Leadville as well. It chugged through the Cloud City for the last time in Nov. 1939.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Leadville
• Colorado & Southern
• Railroad
• 2-8-0
• No. 641
• Co.

[southparkline1]

The D&RG shutdown its Tennessee pass line in the early 1990s. Steam locomotive 641 may look good but is in a terrible operating state.

[southparkline1]

Actually the C&S pulled up the rails from freemont pass to denver in 1938. Three locomotives were left in Leadville to operate the 14 mile branch to the Climax mine. The C&S in Leadville was a three foot railway and the D&RG was a 4 1/2 foot railway which meant that the railcars had to be unloaded and loaded back up. The C&S decided to convert the line to standard gauge or the 4 1/2 foot gauge in 1943. The railroad operated steam until 1963. Freight service continued until 1988.