One of the Colorado wildfires has effectively completely destroyed Royal Gorge Park near Canon City, damaging the famed "world's highest suspension bridge" and destroying D&RGW caboose 0584 that was on display next to D&RGW 499 at the park:

http://denver.cbslocal.com/2013/06/12/r ... ge-spared/

http://www.fox21news.com/news/photos.as ... bufZtgvy5-



Pre-fire photos: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/rspict ... x?id=41874

No definitive word on 499's damage......

Very sad news. Reminds me of the destruction of a Soo Line caboose from another wildfire, in eastern Arizona.

I believe that wooden cabooses and other flammable rail equipment must not remain on display outside in most forests.

Hopefully the fire was not hot enough long enough to melt the bearings or warp the iron parts.

All the owners can do is recover the hard parts, get them under a roof, and clean them up and repaint them quickly. They can be used to rebuild that caboose, or on another D&RGW caboose project.

Odd that it didn't seem to harm 499 at all, no apparent heat damage to the paint.

General consensus on the NGDF is that hot fall debris started the fire. The same debris also caused the "dog house" on the tender to catch fire and be destroyed. A fireproof shelter might have saved the caboose, or exacerbated a fire if it started.

Michael Seitz
Missoula MT