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THE OLD DEPOT -BED BREAKFAST-

The Old Depot was just that, the old depot in Encampment on what used to be the Saratoga - Encampment Railroad.
The building was erected in 1906 and functioned as the train depot until the line closed in 1954. In 1968 the depot and the freight house were moved down the hill to Riverside in an effort to preserve these structures. There, the vestiges of the Encampment end of the railroad were converted to a private residence.
UP Encampment Branch, circa 1960s
I'm interested in modeling the former UP Encampment Branch from Walcott to Saratoga, WY, and possibly all the way to Encampment, WY circa the 1960s. My memories are of a six-axle Alco roadswitcher (RSC2?) trundling into town on the weekdays, switching the lumber mill in town, and heading back to Walcott Jct. and eventually Rawlins, with the caboose anywhere in the train except, of course,in front of the locomotive.
I have several questions:
1. When did UP stop servicing the stock pens at Meads and Overland?
2. When did UP stop going south to Encampment? Was it shortly after the copper played out, or did they still service the stock pens placed along the south leg of the wye?
Thankfully, Kato has come out with an HO scale RSC2 in UP colors, so I feel I've got the locomotive situation solved. Also, there IS a manufacturer that has come out with a plastic model of a UP caboose, and it may be "new" enough (that is, not wooden) to use.
I'm not really interested in running in the 1970s, but I would like to know at what point UP replaced the Alco with, say, a Geep, or if a Geep was used when the Alco was down for service or repairs.
I can chase down the yard configuration at Saratoga, and I can measure the depot personally (thankfully, it was saved, and moved to a museum site across from the local airport). Any info on the above from you UP folks wound be helpful. Thanks!

Wyoming Ghost Towns Battle, Rambler and Rudafeha Mines

Rambler....

Hotel Wolf

Encampment

Stage

Great Encampment Tram

The Rudafeha Mine, 14 miles from Encampment, was established by Rudolph, Davis, Ferris and Haggarty and named after the investors. The ore from the Rudafeha Mine in Battle, Wyoming, was carried to the smelter in Encampment on the world's longest aerial tramway.

Battle was named as a result of a battle fought between 500 Sioux, Arapaho and Cheyenne and 23 Rocky Mountain Fur Company trappers.

The mines in the area were abandoned in 1908 with the loss of value in copper and the indictment of the company for stock fraud.

When the shafts of the Rudafeha Mine were sealed no provision was made for drainage and the shafts are now flooded with some seepage poluting nearby steams.

Rudafeha Mine, Battle, Wyoming, prior to 1908

In the cloudy crystal ball department, in 1907, the State Geologist Henry C. Beeler reported as to the mines featured on this page:

The two mines of the Penn-Wyoming Copper Company, the Ferris-Haggarty and the Doane-Rambler, are in active operation. In the former some' new ore shoots have been opened and the mine bids fair for a greater production than ever, as it has been put in first-class physical shape and the ore handled at a less cost per ton. Diamond drill prospecting has been going on in the lower levels of this mine this year, exploring the adjacent formations for parallel ore shoots, but the results have not yet been given to the public. In the Doane-Rambler mine, work has been confined to reopening the working levels, putting them in shape for a large production and connecting the mine with the sixteen-mile overhead tramway, which transports the ore from the Ferris-Haggarty mine to the Encampment smelter and the railroad.

There is no reason, why an active production campaign should not be made, and the management of this enterprise is to be congratulated on what it has accomplished, in the face of what appeared to be almost insurmountable difficulties, in the way of fires, scarcity of labor, financial depression and an arbitrary and needless decline in the price of copper, which occurred just as it had completed its new works and was prepared to produce at a handsome profit.

This new smelter and railroad have made the future of the Encampment district a certainty, as there has never been any doubt as to the ores here, and new work is going on all over the district.

As noted above, the mines closed the next year.

Rambler, Wyoming, 1891

Rambler, located in the Grand Encampment Mining District of southern Carbon County, was established by Rudolph, Davis, Ferris amd Haggarty as a part of their copper mining operations.

In 1998, The Wyoming State Geologic Survey, noting that the New Rambler mine had in the early 1900's, in addition to copper, mined some platinum-group metals, reported that there has been some renewed interest in exploration and claim staking for platinum-group metals in the state.

================History of the Encampment Valley=================

History of the Grand Encampment, Wyoming Area
An abundance of fine pelts drew the first white men into the valley, long held sacred by the Indians. The trappers' day soon passed, and was succeeded by others, equally brief. Tie cutters, cattle barons, and hunting expeditions came and went.The year of 1897 produced an electrifying change. A rich copper strike in the Sierra Madres precipitated the new city of Grand Encampment and several satellite settlements. The smelter was supplied by a 16-mile aerial tramway-longest in the world. Power was provided by water through a 4 foot wooden pipeline. The S & E Railroad was constructed, but its completion came a little late.
In 1908, the company which had produced two million dollars in copper ore, was indicted for over-capitalization and fraudulent stock sales. The mines closed, and Rudefeha, Dillon, Copperton, Rambler, Battle and Elwood became ghost towns. Encampment and Riverside survived but the "Grand" was quietly dropped.

Credits? Unknown..came from old photocopy...

Present day remnants.....

Wyoming Colorado Railroad Company, Inc.
Nature of Firm
WYCO operates three disconnected lines. One extends from a connection with UP at Laramie, WY 1.3 miles. Seasonal passenger excursions are also operated on this line. Rail is 112-115 pound. The second line extends from a UP connection at Wolcott Junction to Saratoga, WY, 24.3 miles. Rail is 131-133 pound. The third line, Oregon Eastern Division, runs from a UP connection at Ontario to Celatom, OR, 21 miles. Traffic is primarily forest products - 1,000 cars a year. The Hebron line was built by the Laramie, Hahn's Peak & Pacific between 1904 and 1914. In 1914 the company was reorganized as the Colorado, Wyoming & Eastern Railway, and ten years later it became the Laramie, North Park & Western. UP leased the line in 1936 and merged it into UP in 1951. The Saratoga line was built and operated by the Saratoga & Encampment Railroad between 1908 and 1928. Union Pacific leased the line from November, 1921 until October, 1926. The company was then reorganized as the Saratoga & Encampment Valley in May 1928, and remained under UP control until August 1951, when it was merged into UP. UP sold the two lines to WYCO in November 1987, and short line service started on December 19, 1987. The Hebron line was cut back in a series of abandonments, the last one from the Colorado state line to Laramie in September 1996. The Oregon line was a Union Pacific branch acquired by WYCO on November 6, 1989. It was cut back from Burns to Celatom, 120 miles, in June 1992.

The company is a subsidiary of Western Railroad Builders.
Location
WYOMING COLORADO RAILROAD COMPANY, INC. P. O. Box 1876 Ogden, UT 84402
Interchange Points Ontario, OR Wolcott Junction, WY Laramie, WY
Equipment Summary 7 locomotives