RAILROAD REAL ESTATE - PART I

by Pam North

	History buffs and railroad aficionados surely must  get a thrill at the sight of the trio of railroad cars beside the highway winding through Nederland.  A familiar landmark for many years, the cars have experienced fascinating pasts prior to their current reincarnation.
	The man behind their deliverance and restoration is Jimmy Keith, a local realtor. He hails originally from Massachusetts, and his interest in railroad cars has its roots in the history of his family's
business, Keith Car Works, which prospered from the mid-1800s to about 1903, building Conestoga wagons and railroad cars. The tall, straight pines of that area, originally used for ship masts, also made choice lumber for wagons and railroad cars, but as forests became stripped of the virgin trees, it signaled the end of an era for the family's business as well.  
	As a youth, Keith often traveled with his family by train, bringing him his first look at Colorado, and the state eventually became his home. He bought an old caboose in Denver in 1971, relocating it in Left Hand Canyon below Ward, and refurbishing it as living quarters. The caboose was the beginning of a ten-year career of a very unusual nature; Keith became a railroad car broker. As he learned how to locate and purchase them, obtain required permits, and what equipment to buy for transporting them, he built up a coast-to-coast business of procuring them as cabins for individuals, and offices or restaurants for businesses. 
	Keith had come across two railroad cars, a Pullman-built passenger car and a caboose, and his vision was to locate the pair at the corner of what is now the Caribou Shopping Center parking lot (at that time it was just a field with no surrounding buildings). His idea initially was met with some resistance from local residents and town officials who did not quite know what to make of his off-beat project. His perseverance in jumping through the required and assorted hoops to obtain approval luckily culminated in consent to continue.
	The Pullman-built car was made in 1906, the last year luxurious, mahogany-paneled wood coaches were manufactured, and it had run exclusively on Colorado rails. Keith had spotted it sitting on an island in a pond near the Boulder Turnpike, where it had been moved by its owner after purchase from the Colorado and Southern Railroad. The car was inhabited by a colony of bees, and the threat of stings had the inadvertently beneficial effect of protecting the car's desirable stained-glass windows from being stolen. Only ten Pullman cars ever were made of this style for the Colorado and Southern
Railroad, nine of which passed through Keith's hands through the years. They were used as passenger cars from 1906 to 1935, then pressed into service to transport troops during World War II, after
which the railroad used them for work cars until they were sold.
	A wood caboose, circa 1924 and also from the Colorado and Southern Railroad, was slated by Keith to join up with the Pullman, Its signature architecture includes the gently-curved ceiling beams and high, quaint cupola seats on each side.
	The Pullman-built car and the caboose were moved in the early 1970s to the corner of what is now the Caribou Shopping Center parking lot (it was then just a field with no shopping center). Labor-intensive effort was invested in the restoration of the cars, involving sandblasting and hand-sanding many layers of old paint, replacement of hard-to-find missing parts, and extensive research into original plans and periods for authenticity. His pair of cars evolved to become a charming antique shop for Keith and his wife, Char.
	A third car was discovered by Keith, hidden away in a tractor shed in Wiggins, Colorado. Keith made an offer to the car's owner for the vintage treasure, but was turned down, Keith was determined to buy it, however, and his persistence paid off when foreclosure by the car owner's bank put the car on the market and finally into Keith's eager hands. The car originally had been Union Pacific Denver and Gulf Company's property, numbered 1326, manufactured in 1872 from an 1862 design, and had functioned as a railroad post office car before replacing a Floto-Sells Circus car in 1906 that had burned up in an annual repaint flash-curing process. It was #2 of three advance cars to advertise the circus (these arrived ahead of the circus itself in towns where performances were scheduled, carrying sleeping and cooking facilities, and advertising bills to paste on buildings). It also was used as Buffalo Bill's personal touring car.
	Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, which traveled through America and Europe from 1893 to 1914, was part of the Floto-Sells circus (which had evolved from a dog-and-pony show started in 1902 by the owners of the Denver Post, and ultimatelyjad become allied with Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus in 1929). The Wild West Show was a lavish production featuring a variety of acts that recreated the romantic lore of the frontier, complete with cowboys, Indians, stunt riders, trick ropers, sharpshooters stagecoaches, and Buffalo Bill (William F. Cody) himself as the main attraction. With vaudeville acts and concerts before and after the show, the entertainment lasted a full three hours, and the show's drama became the mythical perception of the American West for its audiences. Fourteen thousand people turned out in attendance at Cody's appearance with the show in Denver in 1914, despite the fact that the show had fallen on hard times, and had gone into receivership the summer before. 
	The circus car features a copy of a 1907 Wild West show advertisement, authentically painted in a slightly less sharp style of its era that looks just fine at a distance. The wheels are stamped with Denver & Salt Lake Railroad's marks, despite the fact that the car body itself is Union Pacific's, a testament to the fact that railroad parts were sometimes interchanged between companies.
	The circus car was renumbered to the Colorado and Southern Water Service in 1926, and finally retired to its Wiggins location in 1944, where it rested until its move to Nederland.  It joined the others to become the current configuration. The cars are now owned by Jim Guercio, and are currently occupied by the Happy Trails/Cool Beans bike and coffee business, so they are open to the public. 	These wonderful remnants of history definitely are worth a visit for a glimpse into a time that is gone forever.