Platte Canyon

By Brent Burger; posted December 21, 2002

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The Old South Park headed south out of Denver and turned west up Platte Canyon, reaching Kenosha Summit and the eastern rim of the South Park in 1879. Here a 2 - 8 - 0 double header pounds upgrade with a westbound freight movement bound for Leadville or the Gunnison country about 1905. Note the pole made of iron pipe. The railroad found it much easier to set a pole made of pipe in the solid rock by way of a steam drill than ever attempting to dig! This pole was still standing in 1977, but had filled with water, frozen, rusted, and broken off when I visited last summer. It now resides in dry storage in my collection, waiting for a room to make a worthy display of this outstanding example of 1870's mountain line construction.

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