Denver, South Park & Pacific Coach “Geneva”

                       On a beautiful Saturday morning, March 31st, 2012, one of the two surviving ends of C&S coach 56 came home to Como after a 75-year absence. This coach was built in Dayton Ohio in 1878 by the Barney and Smith Company as Denver South Park & Pacific coach No. 3, the “Geneva”. 

            Languishing in a field in eastern Colorado for many decades the center of the car succumbed to the elements and the ends were cut off. Mike Pannell of Cheyenne WY rescued the ends and one is now displayed in the Cheyenne Union Pacific depot and the other end now resides in the Como roundhouse. During its life this car carried the numbers: DSP&P 3 (1878), Union Pacific/Denver South Park & Pacific 63 (1885), Denver Leadville and Gunnison 63 (1889), Colorado and Southern 160 (1899) and Colorado and Southern 56 (1906 till end). Making countless trips from Denver to Gunnison and Leadville, it also served on the Clear Creek line around 1910. 

           The Denver South Park & Pacific Historical Society worked with Mike to fund and facilitate the move to the Como roundhouse for permanent display. 

           Special thanks to Mike Pannell for starting this process, Doug Gertsch for moving it from the field to Como, Gene McDivett for unloading it into the roundhouse, Dr. Charles and Mrs. Kathy Brantigan for allowing it to be stored in the roundhouse, and to the Park County Historical Preservation Advisory Commission and the members of the Denver South Park & Pacific Historical Society for funding the move.

	Coach 56 arrives in Como. The passengers have “stepped off” and are enjoying breakfast in the Como eating House before puttin’ her in the barn. Photo by Dr. Charles Brantigan
	The cows are lamenting, “There goes the neighborhood.” Photo by Dr. Charles Brantigan
	Unloading the coach end from the trailer to the skid loader for placement into the roundhouse. Photo by Dr. Charles Brantigan
	Plenty of room - an inch or two to spare! Photo by Dr. Charles Brantigan
	The midday sun graces the end of coach 56 in Como for the first time in 75 years! Society members (L to R) are Tim Dannels, Bob Schoppe and Brian Adams. Photo by Dr. Charles Brantigan
	This original window shade shows varying degrees of weathering. Even the original spring mechanism and latches still work! Photo by Dr. Charles Brantigan
	An interior view of the coach at the Sundown & Southern near Ft. Lupton, Colorado, shortly before the ends were cut off. Photo by Todd Hackett - July 17, 2002
	The surviving C&S car number over the door. Photo by Todd Hackett - July 17, 2002
	Coach 56 in happier times - when it was known as DSP&P 63 in the late 1880's. Photo courtesy of the Mid-Continent Railway Museum