The Colorado and Southern once had a narrow gauge line that ran from Denver to Leadville. The line was too steep and narrow to be converted to standard gauge and it was ultimately abandoned. However, roughly a ten mile stretch of the line was converted to standard gauge between Leadville and the Molybdenum mine at Climax. The C&S handled all the mine traffic and then interchanged with the Rio Grande. This was one of the last holdouts for steam on the C&S as the engine used for switching was the steam engine seen here, used well into the 1950s. As you can see, the engine was preserved and donated to the town of Leadville. It is no longer operable, but sits outside of the Leadville depot.
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