C&N Railroad Project - A photographic tour of Sunset.

I always have the best of intentions of riding something to completion. Of course once I started to start the, more or less, final draft of Sunset for the Colorado and Northwestern I literally ran out of time to sit down and draw. I did, however, manage to pull out my two primary sources for that I will be using. The first is the "Switzerland Trail of America" by Forest Crossen and the second is an article in Bulletin No. 65 of the Railway and Locomotive Historical Society which was published in October of 1944. In is an article by M.C. Poor on the Denver, Boulder and Western which contains a lot of the back history for the Colorado & Northwestern. In fact I think this article is also used in Crossen's book for the early history of the railroad. Crossen's book was published originally in 1962, the second edition in 1978 and the paperback edition in 1992.

I have have a second edition printing that I literally wore out and another that is in almost mint condition. I also have the paperback edition which has an awful binding and a good chunk of the center pages are falling out (although

The task was to locate and note all the pictures of Sunset the can be found in the book (which really is the bible for fans of this railroad). Most of the pictures are pretty good but there are some that aren't very good. My goal is to take the 17 pictures that I found and see if I can locate something closer to the original in the local libraries. Most of the photos were taken by "Rocky Mountain" Joe Sturtevant, but there are a few from LC McClure and a few other local photographers. Tracking some of those down will probably be next to impossible.

While I'm only loosely modeling Sunset, especially since the plan is already basically in place, I do want to get a feel for the terrain so that it at least resembles the area. As I pointed out previously the key points are the trestles and the station. These photographs are the best I can do to get an idea of how these should look.

Here are the photos I'll be trying to find:

Nice view of the trestle and the station

This is an over exposed photo, it would be nice to find a better copy of it

This one has a view of the water tank on the far side of the trestles that cross the creek

Nice view of one side of the station

These long views help give a sense of the terrain

Another photo that is a bit blown out. It would be nice to see the side of the station

A nice overall shot of Sunset. Most of the buildings actually run up the gully to the right near the square building on the upper right side of the picture

This one is from the west side so you are looking east, more or less, towards Boulder.

Another long view

A really nice view of the top of the water tank. Sunset is to the left side of the picture and you can just make out the branch to Ward on the left as well

Here you can see how Sunset goes up the gully

Another view from the west side, not much is visible but its a good shot of the hotel

This is another one I would love to get a better copy of

Another good one, you can see the side of the station and its good shot of the somewhat unusual cabooses used by the C&N

Not really a vital shot, but certainly a nice to have

Another good higher view looking to the west. Similar to one of the other shots above.

Those are the pictures, now I just need to see what can be found out there.