By Linda Smith, Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad
During the past 27 years, the Friends of the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad has been nationally recognized for its ability to bring historic rail cars back to life – not only through its high-quality restoration work but because of its unwavering commitment to keep them rolling on the Cumbres & Toltec Railroad’s (C&TSRR) narrow-gauge rails. The latest pristine restoration effort, long anticipated by rail fans and historians, is the resurrection of Railway Post Office Car (RPO) 54.
RPO #54
Now nearing completion, thanks to Friends Team Leader Don Bayer and his dedicated volunteers, it’s pretty clear that most rail fans will know where Car 54 is – it’s in Chama, NM at the C&TSRR’s rail yard – most of the time, anyway. “We’re now wrapping up the detail interior work, and the next step will be the installation of period trucks. Russ Hanscom and his crew in Antonito are fabricating the trucks/wheel sets at our Antonito Car Restoration Facility. That means we’ll be truly roadworthy and ready for show time.” Actually, show time has already occurred, at least once.
Hanscom reports that the car’s original trucks were made of cast steel. He and his team are replicating those to the best of their abilities. So far, they have cut out and partially welded four “flying bolsters” – supportive beams for the wooden frame configured as shown to the right. Two are for RPO 54, and two for Cook Car 053. The team has also cut out the equalizer bars and spring caps, purchased brake beams, and has the castings for the pedestals and journal boxes. Major purchases remaining include wheels and axles, brake shoes, bearing brasses and springs. The RPO truck frame will be a steel fabrication resembling the original cast steel.
Volunteers will weld the assembly during Work Sessions A and B in May and June of 2015. Hanscom anticipates that the trucks will be completed in 2016, given sufficient funds for the remaining purchases. The Friends have identified the trucks project as one of its highest priorities and have already amassed about 25% percent of the estimated cost for project completion. When the new wheel sets are installed, RPO 54 will be showcased in special charters and prominently displayed at various C&TSRR sites.
Built in 1880 for the Denver & Rio Grande Railway (D&RG) by the Billmeyer & Small Company, RPO 54 was one of many railroad cars operated in passenger service as part of the U.S. government’s Railway Mail Service (RMS). Officially inaugurated in 1869, the RMS’ purpose was to handle the transportation and sorting of mail on board trains. RPO car interiors were fairly standardized, including cast-iron fixtures that could be unfolded and set up in a number of configurations to hold mail pouches, racks and a sorting table. These fixtures could also be folded away to provide an open space to carry baggage and express shipments.
RPO 54’s interior.
For many years, the D&RG and later the D&RGW (Denver & Rio Grande Western) contracted with the RMS to collect, sort and deliver mail for the isolated communities it served. It was a profitable venture that ended in 1951 when competition from other forms of transportation induced the RMS to cancel the railway contract. This same competition – from car, truck and bus transportation – led to the end of the San Juan passenger train and eventually, the railroad as a whole. After retirement, the railroad converted the car to “Outfit Car X054” at Alamosa for mundane use with the Rotary OY snowplow as a crew living car – somewhat of a come-down from its former glory days. In 1970, the car was sold to the D&RGW’s successor, the C&TSRR.
The Friends started this ambitious restoration project in 2007, with the decision that it would be rebuilt to reflect its prime operating era – around 1924. Bayer, one of the Friends’ most talented and dedicated team leaders, took on this project as a labor of love. He spent his career as a railroad train dispatcher for the BNSF (formerly the CB&Q and BN). Now a resident of Chama, NM, Don and various team members over the years have spent almost every week of every work session focused on this rebuilding, displaying an esprit d’ corps from the first tear-down to the last placement of the wood plank flooring. Bayer also worked on the project during the Friends’ off-season.
The cost of materials, supplies and services to bring RPO 54 back to life is estimated at $125,000 for a car that was priced at $1,841 in 1880. 7,074 volunteer hours – which includes 450 hours of off-season work by Bayer – are reflected in the final product. The estimated value of this work, using labor rates as shown on Independent Sector’s web site, is $141,480.
The Friends are discussing an inaugural event sometime in the near future which could involve the U.S. Postal Service. While this kind of event would be well in advance of a true “return to service.