Turning Back the Pages

30 years ago – October 24, 1986

Central City folks were steamed. Early Friday morning, they moved quickly to derail plans to take away the historic train. The engine had been loaded onto a truck the day before, but the Colorado State Patrol held it up overnight while measuring the extra-large load. The truck, with engine aboard, was parked in the Big T parking lot until morning. When Angelo DiBenedetto heard the truck’s engine start about 7:00 a.m., he called John McConnell and within minutes a blockade of cars was posted in front of the parking lot. The impasse lasted into the afternoon before the engine was finally hauled away, but by then the Central City people had made their point. Both Denver papers and the television stations covered what quickly became known as “The Great Train Robbery of 1986.” That saying had been seen on T-shirts within an hour of the siege. It had all begun on Tuesday when locals found out the Central City Opera House Association had sold the four-car train that had been on display in Central for 45 years. Until Tuesday last week, the opera association had kept the news of the sale under wraps, and locals felt they should have been offered the first chance to buy the train. DiBenedetto reports that a high ranking association official told him that Central City would never be able to come up with that much money. The train was sold to the Colorado Historical Society, a taxpayer supported agency of the Colorado Department of Higher Education. The historical society planned to move the train to Silver Plume, restore it, and put it on display in conjunction with the Georgetown Loop. Last week, Bill Gossard, the chairman of the opera association, said the association needs the money. Additionally, the train was in bad repair and required attention. He said it would not have been sold without the understanding that it would be restored. DiBenedetto and a lot of other locals felt it “morally” and “sentimentally” belonged to Central City residents. The train was given to the opera association in the early 1940s by the Colorado & Southern Railroad. As Friday and the siege wore on, people gave interviews to the Denver media and the City Council contacted the town’s attorney. It was learned that there was probably no way to get a restraining order, and even if there was, it probably would entail paying the trucking company around $100 an hour to sit in the parking lot. The city fathers had no intention of spending taxpayer’s money on that. According to Alderman J.D. Carelli, the trucking company contacted the federal transportation department. It was thought federal authorities were about to get involved. The people moved their blockade, but by then the moral victory was theirs. The engine was taken away, but it will be back. Monday, Mayor William C. Russell Jr., and Aldermen Carelli, Bruce Schmalz, and Rand Anderson met with people from the state historical society and worked out an agreement. The agreement is that Central City can buy the train back for $25,000, plus the cost of transportation to and from Georgetown. That could run between $5,000 and $10,000. The rest of the train will go to Georgetown, too, because the state historical society is going to go ahead and completely restore it, at no charge to Central City; that could take a year or two. Various avenues of fund-raising are being explored. Already, a fund has been established and donations have been accepted.

Black Hawk Marshal George Armbright was seriously injured in a head-on collision with a tractor trailer Saturday. According to the report prepared by Trooper Tom Gross of the Colorado State Patrol in Golden, Armbright was proceeding west on U.S. 6 when he lost control of his car. He was driving the marshal’s patrol car. Reportedly, Armbright’s car entered the eastbound lane and partially entered the eastbound shoulder of the road. At that point his car collided with the tractor trailer driven by Darrell Wyatt of Golden. The tractor trailer pushed the patrol car sideways into the guardrail and then backwards, Gross reported. The accident occurred about seven miles west of Golden at 2:00 p.m. According to Gross, Armbright was driving an estimated 82 miles per hour. He was wearing a seatbelt. Wyatt was driving approximately 40 miles per hour. Armbright had gone to Jefferson County prior to the accident to deliver a dog to the animal shelter. He had also ordered a new windshield for the patrol car. Armbright is thought to have been in the process of responding to a hit and run accident in Black Hawk when the accident occurred, according to Mayor Bill Lorenz. As of Wednesday, Armbright was in the Intensive Care Unit at Lutheran Medical Center in Wheat Ridge. Both of his legs were injured in the accident and his wrist was broken, among other things. He was scheduled to have surgery yesterday. Wyatt was not injured. A “George Armbright Rehabilitation Fund” has been set up at the First Interstate Bank of Golden – Gilpin County facility. Anyone who may wish to contribute to the fund may make the deposit at the bank.