The Rolling Stock of The Tincup & Western Railroad

Three 30-foot, fish belly gondolas returning to Hillerton from the smelter at Gunnison as the train exits a tunnel near Almont (Circa 1908).

The rolling stock found on the Tincup & Western was reflective of the varied types of service offered, both in numbers and types. The road provided freight and passenger services throughout its area of operations, but was most valuable in hauling raw ore and concentrates from the region's mines and mills to the smelters in Gunnison, or for further shipment to smelters in Denver, Pueblo or Leadville. This service had been performed in the pre-railroad days by ore wagons drawn by mules, which required two days (one way) to travel from the mines and mills to the Denver, South Park & Pacific Railroad railheads in Quartz and St. Elmo. The establishment of the Tincup & Western provided transport service from Tin Cup to Gunnison in only a matter of hours.

The ability to haul raw ore and concentrates from mines and mills near Tin Cup to the smelters was initially rather limited, as no large capacity ore cars were available. In 1893 Coupeau contracted with the D&RG shops in Gunnison to construct small gondolas based on the design used by the Lima Iron Works (later the Lima Locomotive Works) for the Gilpin Tramway Company in Blackhawk, Colorado.

Switcher No. 13 pulling a string of empty 30-foot gondolas out of the Hillerton Yard en route the mills south of town. This photo shows some of the scratch built gondolas based on the Roundhouse HO design. In the background, Tincup & Western train #6 draws a combination car and a coach north along Willow Creek en route Gunnison. Box cars, gondolas filled to capacity and the train's caboose await the arrival of the locomotive at the switch controlling access to the Hillerton Yard.

Lima had built a series of two-foot gauge, wooden frame/- iron box, drop bottom ore cars. These small cars had only a six ton capacity and hardly met the requirements of even the small Tincup & Western. Coupeau's solution to his ore car dilemna was rather simple, at least in theory - upscale the two-foot gauge Gilpins. The result was the construction of five upscaled Gilpin Phase-2, drop bottom ore cars by the D&RG shops, each of which hauled nearly 11 tons of material. Unfortunately, the increased capacity of the iron box created stress problems when full since the frames were built with 12-inch timbers. Coupeau again consulted with his old friend General Palmer of the D&RG and arranged for the Alamosa shops to build larger capacity, gondolas on 30 foot flat car frames. The result was a car with a 17 ton capacity - nearly three times that of the original Gilpin cars.

The remainder of the Tincup's rolling stock could have been found in virtually any railroad of the day. Surplus passenger cars were purchased from D&RG stocks, and were configured for Tincup & Western service at the D&RG's Gunnison shops. Other rolling stock acquisitions consisted of 34 foot box and stock cars purchased from the Denver, South Park & Pacific and the Rio Grande. In addition, Coupeau purchased from the Rio Grande several of the 30 foot flat cars from which the gondolas had been built.