Boulder, CO Steam Engine

railsmidwest · **Joined:** Thu Nov 27, 2008 8:48 pm **Posts:** 9

Any information on this news article?

http://www.dailycamera.com/boulder-coun ... i_13448454

Stationary Steam · **Posted:** Wed Sep 30, 2009 8:09 am

The most interesting part of that article is this passage:

"They were placed in Central Park, where vandals destroyed the caboose in 1958 by blowing it up with dynamite."

Holy Explosives Batman!!! Thats what I call destroying a caboose with extreme prejudice!

Mark Jordan · **Joined:** Fri Nov 07, 2008 11:21 am **Posts:** 490

Quote:

But three years later, the lawsuit said, Uhrich told Boulder it wasn't possible to restore the train to operational use. It was sent to West Side Locomotive to undergo cosmetic improvements instead.

Nice one.

Bob Davis · **Joined:** Sat Aug 28, 2004 3:25 am **Posts:** 1025

"Vandals blew up the caboose with dynamite"--Maybe we Southern Californians should count our blessings when vandals "only" attack display cars with spray paint.

Stationary Steam · **Posted:** Thu Oct 01, 2009 9:03 pm

I still laugh when I think of that one. Launching a cupola into orbit has to win an award for most creative vandalism!

William Diehl · **Posted:** Fri Oct 02, 2009 10:22 pm

Bob Davis wrote:

"Vandals blew up the caboose with dynamite"--Maybe we Southern Californians should count our blessings when vandals "only" attack display cars with spray paint.

Sadly, History has a tendency to repeat itself in Boulder...

30/74 originally went on Display of course with Rio Grande Southern Caboose 401, sadly, which as mentioned above is the one that ended its career on display with the dynamite. (401 still lives on, as various pieces of hardware are now on D&RGW 0579 at the Cumbres and Toltec)

401, was then replaced with the body of D&RGW caboose 04990 until 2007. That year, a college age arsonist set fire to the wood car. Most of the body was "Intact" but a charred skeleton from the photos I've seen. The car today is at the Boulder Railroad Historical Society's worksite in Valmont being rebuilt.

The Remains of Caboose 401 after the Dynamite... from the Denver Public Library Collection
http://photoswest.org/cgi-bin/imager?00006030+OP-6030

04990 after the Arson.

jasonsobczynski · **Posted:** Sat Oct 03, 2009 7:03 pm

This is a shame. Marlin has been predicting this would happen since I first met him about a year ago. He has been trying to give the parts back but Midyette would not take them. Midyette has some psychological issues that I have felt the brunt of as well. I feel for MArlin.