Two questions:
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Does anyone out there have photos of or internet links to photos of the Coors Brewery in Golden Colorado ca 1975 - 1985?
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Has anyone built a facimile of this brewery ca 1975 - 85?
Many Thanks
Maybe do a Google Image search?
Thats a great idea, modeling Coors Brewery. You could go there and take one of their tours. And ask them if they have any maps from the 70s-80s.
If not, then just use Google maps with current day, model it from there.
They basically have their own yard.
Yeah, not sure if Google Earth goes that early? Maybe so, it would be cool.
I visited on a Colorado trip in 1977. You couldn’t get Coors east of KC(?) then, so we bought enough to completely cover the floor in the back of my LandCruiser Wagon (maybe a dozen cases) to bring home to eager Coors drinkers back east.
By the next visit (1985 IIRC) things had expanded greatly down the valley. So there was a lot of change going on in that era.
Sometime around then, they started shipping concentrated beer back east to a plant in Virginia. All I remember is that there was no longer any incentive to backhaul Coors. Plus it seemed like exciting stuff when you’ve just hit drinking age. Add 10 years and a lot more spohistication and Coors tended to be looked down on as Rocky Mtn swill. So sometime in there the facilities were built to load those tankers, among other things.
Well this thread got me all fired up! LOL
So now I’m gonna model Coors Brewery on my new layout. I can dedidate the entire lower right section for Coors. Then I’ll create a photo backdrop of the facilty.
From the Google maps images, I see lots of tankers, coal hoppers, covered hoppers, and box cars.
Michael,
They do have a lot of RR. Then there are the very cool transfer tables…
I remembered after writing the above that I’d also been there in 1967 on a tour during a family trip to Yellowstone. That’s before the era you wanted; the plant then was basically the oldest part, plus some facilities consturcted since WWIi. The RR at the westernmost extent ran into the “canyon” between the brewery and IIRC what was the malthouse?? or at least in part that plus a really huge elevator that held the barley, etc. To get cars of packaging, etc into the plant deeper inside the brewery side from the two or three parallel tracks in the “canyon” – because that’s where the elevator got the grain in, too, IIRC – they used a sort of transfer table at several points…yup, “switched” the car into the plant sideways[:O]
Also for the 75-85 era, there was likely at least one construction project underway every year, we’re talking much of the huge complex just to the east of the plant I described just now. Basically, they had to grow down the gulch toward Denver. After 85, I visited the Colordao RR Museum every couple of years on average until roughly 2000 (which is why I know this, I’ve only taken the tour the first 2 or 3 times, not really a Coors fan) and there was always at least one, sometimes more, huge addition. So I’m guessing the same was true between my 77 and 85 visits in order to be as big as it was by 85 when I saw it vs 77 and was struck by the size of the plant.
Another suggestion on finding aerial imagery is the city of Golden and whatever jurisdiction that is to the east of the plant. Had to be a BUNCH of permits to build all that and the documentation has to be around, maybe not on the internet, but IIRC you’re somewhat local to there…[C):-)]
Oh, IIRC, there was at least one story in the railfan press on Coors RR ops there, I think it was Railfan & Railroad, maybe early 1990s issue? And lots of press on th
In terms of the railroad and the buildings it has changed very little from 1985 to now. The main brewery complex, the power plant and yards haven’t really changed. What has changed is the equipment running on the tracks. They had at least 3 sw900’s running over their railroad. The main yard that they interchange at is run by the BNSF (formally BN). They had an SD-9 that was stationed there for as long as I can remember until it was retired sometime in the late 90’s.
There is a lot of potential modelling for the brewery. The brewery complex takes up about 1/4 of my current layout design.
I plan to model the brewery from the grain storage silos all the way to the actual brewing complex. It is about 5 miles long In real life so some selective compression is necessary.
I was just going to say, if the evidence for those years doesn’t fit, go earlier, it might have been different in terms of the buildings arouind the track. You’re right about the general location of the RR, as the canyon terrain and now the building complex confines it.
Gotta consider how far back 67 was. There was virtually nothing to the east of what’s the westernmost part of the plant. The grain was right there, but maybe there was also a facility down around the first arm of the canyon you couldn’t see from where the tour had a great overview somewhere up in the plant? All I know is that I was impressed by the elevator facilities themselves being right there since I’m from a farming family. Now they’re 5 miles away and everything’s probably been builtup as you say mostly since. Crazy big, but I’m from out in the sticks and easily impressed. [:-^] So Michael would only need to adjust the look by year a little after 85, a way to cover several decades of interest, but could have some interestingly different options before 85 to look for, depending on his interests.
And there’s no way it’ll all fit[:'(], so it’s going to be a case of how much will fit and what you need to get it to look right in the available space.[C=:-)]
Some great info here guys thanks. I didn’t know the yard was run by BNSF. Which is perfect for me, I model BNSF, UP, and D&RGW.
Its only a 40min drive from my house, so I need to go over there and take lots of pics. Then I can create my own photo backdrop of it.
I made some changes to my new layout plan for Coors.
The beer line is owned by the BNSF (formerly BN) and the interchange yard in Golden is operated by them. The is also a small oil distributor at the end of the line. The railroad tracks also used to serve Coors Ceramics (now Coortek) which produced the ceramic tiles for the space shuttle.The huge yard in the middle of the valley are operated by coors. The have two tie in points to the BN beer line. The west interchange is right next to the main complex near Downtown golden. The east interchange crosses over HWY 58 and ties back in east of McIntyre road crossing 44th ave.
The power plant is pretty interesting as well. It is coal fired and was usually fed by individual hopper of coal from the Rio grande. There is a large auger that takes the coal from the dumper up to the power plant. Coors also has their own sewage treatment plant as well.
Also a cool thing to note is the truss bridge that crosses over clear Creek next to the Coors mansion.
I will check my files and see if I can get some of the photos of the plant uploaded.
As I said previously the brewery is a big part of my layout and I want to do it justice. Golden is my home town so I want it to look right!
You’re from Golden, thats really cool. Well in that case you really must have Coors.
I grew up in Northglenn. Now I live in Broomfield.
Yes please upload some pics!
Regarding the coal. Do they have a rotary dumper? How is the coal unloaded?
Found this interesting shot. It of course is a recent photo but interesting
Trains Magazine April 2006
NMRA Bulletin August 2001
Also, a micro layout based on the traverser operation (scroll down about half-way)
Great link, cuyama. My memory is well-aged, so a bit different than I remember, but could still serve as an interesting highlight that might even fit Michael’s space.[Y]
Thanks Byron, I just ordered the Trains Magazine issue for April 2006.
Golden Colorado is rich with railroad points of interest. Having lived in Denver for 7 years, I have driven by the Coors facility a number of times. While living there I had a client in Golden, so I would take in the railroad scene. In addition to Coors, Gunderson (the railroad car builder) has shops there. In addition to that, the Colorado Railroad Museum is also in Golden. In fact, while visiting my now adult children in Denver this past Christmas, my oldest son treated me to a visit to the museum; part of his Christmas gift to me! That was a special treat. In the basement of the main building is a large club-sized HO scale layout (both standard and narrow gage), not to mention all the vintage equipment they have on display there. also while there, they had a steam locomotive operating. I got to see it being turned on the “arm strong” turn table in front of the roundhoue.
My point in all this is that there is not just the Coors facility that could be modeled in Golden, although that could take up the space of a whole layout if not selectively compressed.
Hello All,
Modeling the Colorado Railroad Museum, space permitting, would be a great addition to any pike.
For those of you that have vintage, non operational, locomotives and rolling stock this would be a great place to display them on your layout rather than on a shelf.
Hope this helps.
well I have some good news and some bad. The good news is that I do have a whole bunch of pictures of the brewery. The bad news is that they are on my external hard drive which is currently in a shipping container on its way to Seattle.
Sorry guys to have led you on. I will post them once I find my external drive.
Very much looking forward to seeing your brewery/RR pics when you get them dug out.
I just got me a brand new Canon DSLR camera. Tomorrow I’m going to Coors for photo shoot.
I’ll post a bunch of pics here when I finish.