Hi to all
Today was a beautiful day here in Wyoming and I went off intending to reach the summit of the Denver Pacific at Athol WY 6330ft. We did that and found some amazing things on the way. The first find was totally unexpected the concrete base of a semaphore signal (anyone know what date this might be, surely not 1869? and what the post and signal may have looked like), once we reached the summit we found the Wye and the base of the section house, the site of the 3800ft side tracks and a tie still in situ on the Wye, 102 years after abandonment tie plates and sections of rail plus the wonderful find of a axle box cover, (can anyone shed light on the Holland Company or Sharps Oil Boxes patent date 2/11/02.

A truly great day, and more of the same tomorrow.
Pictures at

http://mikepannell254.fotopic.net/p67873257.html
We are doing an official walk of the line on saturday 30th October if anyone would like to join us.

Thanks
Mike Pannell

Cheers to all
Mike Pannell

Mike, Nice find on that Holland Company / Sharps journal box cover/lid! I don't know anything about that peticular company and have not found one like that yet but there are many other early hinged varieties that you may find.One of the most common hinged covers i tend to find are the McCord ones with the 1897 pat. dates.Some early hinged covers also have the MCB Std. for Master Car Builders Standard on them.And i'm sure there are alot more manufacturer names on others to be found.You may also find the Hewitt and Allen Style covers wich are different than the bolt on and hinged covers as they slide in grooves on the front of the actual journal box.Keep a keen lookout for this stuff as they are scattered along old RR right of way's as i mentioned in my message to you a few day's back.Better yet take a metal detector along on your next walk and you may find even more interesting things.

You'll like the older bolt on journal box cover lids much better as they tend to have the RR names embossed in raised letters,some of the early hinged ones also have RR names on them.From your photo's that old abandoned line looks to be very interesting and most likely a easy one to find things along the way as you have no trees,briars,and thick underbrush like here in the east to deal with like where i live,plus the things you are going to find are more likely to be in much better condition due to the drier climate out there.Wish i was out there to go along on your walk of that line tomorrow on the 30th.Unfortunately i'm just a bit to far a way to join in on that one! Good luck and happy hunting!

Fritz

Thanks Fritz
I thought you would be interested ! We are taking metal detectors tomorrow to see what we can find. Will let you know how it goes.

Mike

What is the story on this line? I've seen info on its founding and merging into the Kansas Pacific and Union Pacific, but how did the line's demise come about? Sounds like the end came around 1910, seems early for a line with signals (note the base of a signal post in the photos).

The brief history is built 1869 from Cheyenne to Denver bankrupt in 1897 and came under UP ownership, they decided that a new line from Warren to their interchange at Speer and Borie would be better than running into cheyenne from the east. So a new line was constructed in 1907/8 and the old line last used on the 5 th December 1908. We were also surprised to find signals, and found another one today near Warren.
Athol had 3800ft of side tracks and Warren had side tracks too by 1897. so maybe the signals were added later. I would like to know how they looked we may re-install one.
Mike Pannell