On this day 125 years ago DT&FW 45 was part of the very first train en route from Fort Worth to Denver and at this time 10.00pm was somewhere between Pueblo and Denver having struggled with blizzards on Raton and hotboxes on the new cars and locomotives. The trains stopped in numerous locations for celebrations, meals and speeches and hotboxes !
The first train consisting of baggage car, day car 45 (our C&S 57) Pullman cars "Morelia", "Alesia" and "Napata" (any histories on these would be appreciated) drawn by Engine 15, McCullough (engineer) and William Kellogg (conductor) Travelling passenger agent Burrows in charge of the excursionists. ' A more beautiful train never pulled away from any depot' apparently !
The 4 trains arrived in Denver hours apart with train no1 arriving at 2.40am amidst a hail of gunfire, engineer Charles Nicholas in charge of engine 15 (remarkably the same engine behind which the special had departed Fort Worth) applying the air brake and bringing his train to a halt, all the excursionist including the Trinidad town band made their way to hotels occupants of the sleepers remained in bed.
Just a few interesting excerpts from the newspaper article of the time
A suitable wintry scene of 57 attached
Mike Pannell
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