Georgetown Loop Photo Freight

On Tuesday, Sep 26, 2006, Steven Torrico (CMO for Railstar at the Loop) announced via the Narrow Gauge Discussion Forum that an impromptu freight train would be run on the Georgetown Loop on Wednesday, after the final scheduled train had arrived in the afternoon. The real reason was that they needed to retrieve a pair of historic freight cars from spurs along the route, in order to haul them into the Silver Plume yard for the winter. However, thanks to the efforts of Steve and the rest of the Railstar folks, it turned into a spectacular opportunity to photograph a freight train running over the Loop, powered by C&S 9.

The train left Silver Plume around 1550h, with C&S 2-6-0 #9 backing up, followed by Rio Grande caboose 0586, D&RGW refrigerated car 153, and finally D&RGW stock car 5702. About a dozen fans showed up, including two British gentlemen that had arrived in the States for the two Trains Unlimited narrow gauge photo freights and had stumbled across this move. The run’s goal was to pick up two cars out on the line – D&RGW boxcar 3582 from the spur just north of the high bridge, and D&RGW gon 824 from the spur at Hall Tunnel. In addition, the crew was more than accomodating, when possible, to do run-bys at some particularly good spots, or just let us all photograph things as they went about their jobs.

I want to thank the whole Railstar team that made this possible, but particularly Steve. It was a spectacular opportunity, and something I won’t soon forgot. They also deserve praise for doing a great job with what they’ve been given at the Loop over the past two years. I was one of the pessimists at the outset of the Loop mess in 2004, and I’m glad they’ve proven that most of my concerns were dead wrong. Aside from 12’s recent axle problem, they have had two working narrow gauge steamers, including the fully restored C&S 9. Back in 2003, I never thought I’d see 9 run in my lifetime as I saw it sitting, dilapidated, on the Morningstar track. Yet here it is pulling this photo freight, befitting the Loop’s history. Thanks for letting a few fans follow along on your switching run, and by all means, keep up the good work.



All photographs in this trip report were taken with a Canon EOS 20D using either a Canon 24-105mm F4 L IS/USM or a Canon 75-300mm f4-5.3 IS/USM.

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