The Bricks of the Las Vegas Harvey House

**Note:  This is the first of a many-part series.

On 9/22/18, we drove to Las Vegas, NM, to tour the Harvey House that is being restored there.  The Harvey House had been abandoned for quite a few years, and recently it was purchased and is being restored.

This week’s post will focus on the brickwork around the outside of the building.  The contractors tore all of the original bricks out, placed them aside, redid the sand, and then laid the bricks back down.  So far, the southern wing of the building has been completed.

The contractors restoring the building intentionally left some of the bricks face up so that people could see the origins of these bricks.  Most of them came from Kansas, Colorado or New Mexico.  This makes sense, as the Las Vegas, NM, Harvey House was on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe (ATSF) railroad, which cut across Kansas and Colorado before dropping south.

Map of where I found bricks.  Original source: https://www.kshs.org/, red x’s added by me

 

In Kansas, there were bricks from Pittsburg,

Nesch Brick, Pittsburg, KS

…Coffeyville, (which gained fame later on for being the unfortunate spot for one of the largest hailstones ever found)

 

Vitrified Brick and Tile Co, Coffeyville, KS

Different (perhaps) older stamp

…and Neodesha.  All three of these towns are in the southeastern corner of the state.

Verdgris Valley Vitrified (VVV) Brick and Tile Co, Neodesha, KS

In Colorado, there were bricks from Trinidad,

 

 

Trinidad Brick and Tile Co, CO

 

…and from the Denver.  Interestingly enough, there is an old catalog available online from the Denver Firebrick Co (DFC).

Denver Firebrick Co., Denver, CO

In New Mexico, bricks came from Las Vegas, though, I cannot find any information on HR.

HR in Las Vegas, NM

I got distracted while writing this post, as I found a wealth of information on brick companies.  Brick Names provides a great lookup tool for bricks, though H&R wasn’t in there.

Thank you for reading my post.

 

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NM Railroad History Fair

On 9/15/18, JoAnna and I attended the NM Railroad History Fair in Santa Fe, NM.   It was hosted in the railyard, and included tours of the NM Railrunner (which I ride almost every day), an art show of railroad related art, and a model train show.

Around the railyard, we saw Santa Fe 93, which is used for special events as part of the Santa Fe Southern line.  This line can be leased for parties, weddings, etc.  There are two closed cars, one open car, and one caboose that ride along for this line.

Also in the yard was a Herzog truck fitted for rail use:

 

…and a restored handtruck!

The Santa Fe Depot sat in the distance.

One of the displays showed the railyard, as drawn in 2003.  I accidentally sized this image too small, but you get the idea.

…as w ell as some drawings from 1904.

Another display had a locomotive piston, which I thought was neat.   I wish they’d said more about where it came from.

Overall, it was a good event, and I look forward to attending next year’s, perhaps to take some better photos.

Thank you for reading my post.

Sail Boston, 2009

I found some old photos of the Sail Boston 2009 event.  Lots of wooden ships sailed into the Boston Harbor for a festival.  I didn’t know anything about it at the time (and still don’t!) and we didn’t know that there was such a thing when we drove through Boston that year, but it was neat to see.

Thank you for reading my post.

Red and Silver BNSF 794

This week, I spotted one of the six red and silver BNSF locomotives.  Rumor has it that there are only six of these locomotives in the entire BNSF system, so I like seeing them.

The reason for the limited number of this paint scheme is that supposedly the paint scheme had not been settled upon during the merger of Burlington and Northern and Santa Fe.  Six locomotives were ordered with the red and silver paint scheme, but when the were ready to ship, the merger had completed, so “BNSF” was painted on the side instead of “Santa Fe”.  Soon after these locomotives, the paint scheme was changed to the orange and black that is used to this day.

Thank you for reading my post.