The Union Pacific Railroad has received permission to cut up the 16 Rio Grande cars at Burnham Yard and intends to do so soon.

This is related to an eviction lawsuit. While the Museum of Railway Workers, 501c3, owns the equipment, and there is a dispute (the UP has offered it and given some equipment to other museums) the UP has shown a willingness to save the equipment.

I am hopeful if enough preservationists contact a Union Pacific Railroad representative or other contact, that the UP will reconsider cutting the equipment up.

All that needs to be done is to tell the UP not to cut the rail cars at Burnham Yard.

If you are a preservationist, please do not sit idle without at least emailing someone you know at the UP to prevent this destruction of history.

If you wonder whether the equipment is historic, Colorado has declared 12 of the cars to be Historic Properties.

As a default, you can contact the local media contact on the UP website at:

https://www.up.com/media/contacts/index.htm

I believe the more diverse sources at the UP we contact, the better the chance of saving the equipment.

I do not know the plans, but my guess is that the snow that hit Denver yesterday will probably delayed their start date to begin cutting, but I feel time is of the essence. If you want to send an email, please consider doing it now.

Thanks,

Dan Quiat

Can someone give us more specifics about what we're discussing here?

It's a nice plea, but I for one have NO idea what "Rio Grande" cars are being discussed.

Passenger? Freight? Baggage? Condition? Tempo cars from the Ski Train?

This post on Trainorders.com has video of GP-30 DRGW 3006 being moved into the Forney Museum.

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,4491592

Is there word on other equipment that has been saved or remains at risk - such as the heavyweight passenger cars that were stored here?

Found a slideshow from 2016, suspect this is some of the equipment in question.

http://www.westword.com/slideshow/a-vis ... rd-7607473

Only a guess though.

So, without being snide about it, are we saying nobody, not even our roster gurus, has a listing or roster of the equipment in question?

Let alone an account of condition, flaws, ability to be transported, etc.?

My own default response to anyone that complains about just about anything--from sports to beer to politics to policy--has become "Propose a viable alternative."

As such, if I were in the position to want one or more of these cars, I need to have that "viable alternative" to offer before picking up the phone. If I'm not in a position to offer such an alternative, I have no business calling them.

Now, yeah, I could call and say "I hear you have some rolling stock at Burnham you need gone. What pieces are we talking, and is there any way I can offer an alternative? I work with a 501(c)3/have money....." But I'd rather know what I'm dealing with first.

The aforementioned slide show is apparently hosted on a server through a dial-up modem; after an hour I'm still only up to the halfway mark--cool "abandoned" patina but useless from a documentary point. One thing I noticed in a couple of shots were stencils with several different (supposed) owners and phone numbers. THAT is a situation where I would tread as if I were on eggshells over broken glass. We need an EXPLICIT list of what is actually being made available as well as proof that whatever donation/storage arrangements are now void. (Though, in my experience, if your equipment is sitting on someone else's railroad, they want it gone, and you show up to collect it, they'll help you load it up first and not even bother to ask questions later......)

These wreckers are there.

Denver-(stored Union Pacific Railroad Burnham Yard)
Industrial Works C/N 2481 120 tons Wrecker Steam 04-13
Denver & Salt Lake #10300
Denver & Rio Grande Western #029
Marcus Rail Transport (Dan Quiant) Denver, CO (here 2009, still here 02-02-17)
Colorado State Historic Register 05-16-01
http://www.historycolorado.org/archaeol ... county-d-e
Bucyrus C/N 3556 150 tons Wrecker Steam (to diesel) 05-23
Denver & Rio Grande Western #W5 to #027 (retired 1997)
Museum of Railway Workers (Dan Quiant) Denver, CO
Colorado State Historic Register 03-10-99
http://www.historycolorado.org/archaeol ... county-d-e

Have patience, please!

The situation at Burnham Yard boils down to an eviction lawsuit.

While the litigation is on-going, the Union Pacific did get permission to cut-up the railcars in Denver.

There are 16 Rio Grande cars, they are passenger cars, freight cars and a derrick. There are also two UP cars. In total there are 13 cars on the Colorado State Register of Historic Properties still at the site.

Four pieces were removed from the site recently, again, another dispute of itself.

The goal is to get the UP to stop the cutting up for the moment, not to cherry pick what it feels should be preserved.

Thanks,

Dan Quiat, President,
Museum of Railway Workers

There is also an article linked from the slideshow that has a little more information. It is entitled, "Burnham Railroad Repair Yard Reaches End of the Line, Opening 70 Acres in Denver" and is dated February 15, 2016. Here is a quote by the OP:

"Dan Quiat, the owner of 25 historic cars and an engine, spent a few months agonizing over where he would move them. "I'm feeling a lot of stress," he said as he led a tour of the cars late last month. In November, when Union Pacific announced that Burnham would be closing, "they kind of said, basically, if the cars aren't out, they're gonna scrap them," he recalled."

Here is the link to the full article:

http://www.westword.com/news/burnham-railroad-repair-yard-reaches-end-of-the-line-opening-70-acres-in-denver-7581200

The article also links to the website. A recent (February 18, 2018) post states:

"To all FB followers, The Union Pacific Railroad has decided to scrap the Museum of Railway Workers equipment at Burnham Yard. This unfortunately includes 18 pieces of historic equipment that will be lost. The Museum has helped preserve the equipment for 20 years and spent many funds paying for leases and maintenance. Sadly, the biggest losers will be future generations of Rio Grande and preservation fans. The Museum had only 5 months to move the equipment and find a new home."

Here's the link to the FB page (it is public so you do not have to be on FB to view it):

https://www.facebook.com/MuseumOfRailwayWorkers/

This article from the November 17, 2015 Denver Post gives a bit of background on the site:

https://www.denverpost.com/2015/11/17/union-pacific-to-close-burnham-repair-yard-in-denver/

Yes, I did know the UP was planning to scrap the cars. I have been trying to get preservation groups to use their efforts to try to sway the UP since my does not seem to carry much at this point.

However, I seem to have wasted people's time on this site. My apologies.

I'm grateful for those of you that have helped to try to preserve the equipment at Burnham Yard. Thank you particularly to those that have emailed me and offered to help.

I will continue my efforts to preserve Rio Grande and other Colorado railroad properties and I encourage others on this site to do continue their work.

Sincerely,

Dan Quiat

Built 1913, I wonder if this wrecker was originally Denver, Northwestern & Pacific (the original Moffat Road). Darn little remains of the DNW&P, the boilers to their 200 series mallets were at an oil refinery as late as the 1980s (my grandfather, a Rio Grande fireman at one time, worked for the Public Service company and reported seeing them) but I never could find them when I lived in Denver.

I heard from a reliable source that this crane was moving to the Moffat Railroad Museum in Granby Colorado. Supposedly a UP employee from the Cheyenne steam shop helped prepare the crane for shipment via UPRR on there personal time on a Sunday. Basically lowering the boom to pass through the tunnels plus whatever else was required.

Some thoughts on this matter.

First: You can't save everything.

Second: Don't try.

Third: Select a FEW pieces and try hard to find a new home for them. Let the rest go.

Fourth: Don't expect UP to do everything. They seem to have a good record of appreciating their history.

There is too much rusty junk around the country and less and less money/volunteers to take care of it. Proper museums are already stretched and funding isn't coming out of the woodwork.

Aw c'mon, start a Gofundme campaign. Or maybe passenger cars and derricks aren't as sexy as steam locomotives.

Sadly that about sums it up, they are not interesting for the general public, the last equipment at Boulder still sits there as far as i know and its MOW stuff. No one wants it.

Mike Pannell

It's still sitting at Burnham.

Why would the boom have been raised above traveling position to begin with?