GC41YWK Baker's Tank
Type: Traditional | Size: Micro | Difficulty: | Terrain:
By: Team Ahern @ | Hide Date: 11/25/2012 | Status: Available
Country: United States | State: Colorado
Coordinates: N39° 26.652 W105° 59.842 | Last updated: 08/30/2019 | Fav points: 0
           

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Short walk from the Baker tank to the cache.  Should be accessbile year round although snow shoes or skis required when the road is closed in the winter.

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This red-painted, wooden tank is not the "real" Baker Tank. The real tank held 9,305 gallons of water, not enough water to quench the thirst of passing engines, so it was replaced in 1910 by the Denver, South Park and Pacific tank you see now. This tank originally fueled the giant engines going through the west portal of the Alpine Tunnel. Ore from the nearby Mountain Pride Mine was loaded here in addition to the water.

Tenders, small cars located behind a train's engine, carried coal and water. Coal-fed fires kept the water simmering and steam rolling. Cinders along the track are evidence of the heavy use of coal. The engines drank huge amounts of water, which was replenished at the tanks. The distance between tanks depended on the grade. The steep grade up Boreas Pass required two stops, one six miles up the pass at Selkirk and another at the summit, before the trains made a third stop four miles down from the summit at Baker Tank. The average distance between stops under normal conditions was 30 miles.

Tanks were placed below natural streams and fed by gravity. The tank's spout, hinged upright in its resting position, was lowered into the open hatch on top of the tender. Then a flap valve in the spout was opened to release a gush of water into the tender. The entire operation took no more than a few minutes.

A coal station and 350 feet of side track stood near Baker Tank. A spur went off the track at the tank to service the mining camps in Indiana Gulch.  Courtesy of Summit Historical Society

02/07/2019 By blackforesthiker78713
no luck for me, I went out there in the deep freeze that day around 0 degr, even when I got back to the car, no views, overcast and some snow, I searched for this one for a while until I got cold and needed to get moving , it was hard work to get to GZ (the last 200 feet), even with snow shoes I did sink in a couple feet and more at times, getting to the area was easy, since there was a hard packed trail (did the loop),
we were in town for a week, (visiting from CA) girlfriend went skiing most of the times, while I went out hiking/ snow shoeing depending on the trail conditions, Breckenridge was a great area to explore, one of my favorite ones was going up to crystal lake on a great sunny day, ( a mile or so on a packed trail with yak traks and then with snow shoes all the way) we did grab a few caches in town in the later afternoon, when we also had to frequent the french bakery a few times for some yummy almond croissants,
thanks to all who hid the caches and made them available for winter as well

09/25/2018 By rtaylo8
Found with 2 of my Geo Buds. TFTC

09/25/2018 By NakedNHappyHunter
On a many month & state caching adventure. Took a quick break and found this.
Found with GoofyBareHunter n rtaylo8

09/25/2018 By GoofyBareHunter
Found with NakedNHappyHunter and rtaylo8 while on a road trip across country from Tampa, FL.....
TFTC!

09/23/2018 By YardbirdRocks
Really cool spot! Love the railroad history and the construction of the water tank is beautiful

09/15/2018 By starnsun
Out and about checking on a cache, viewing the changing colors, and grabbing a few caches. TFTC SL

09/08/2018 By Team J&K
We looked for this one previously I think but read a couple of logs today and widened my search and found it 40 feet from where my gps told me to look. Just waiting to be found. Thanks

09/01/2018 By goldpot
Found during our acclimatisation day when we drove along the Boreas Pass, this was when we found out that we were driving along the former railway track bed. What a fabulous structure and it was intersting just how thirsty these steam engines were!
Took a while to locate this cache, but we got there in the end!
TFTC and new record for our highest cache!

-GOLDPOT- #11590

08/18/2018 By mokidog
Beautiful tank...found with PathLighter! TFTC

08/18/2018 By Path_Lighter
Found with Mokidog, on the way to Como. This water tank is amazing. This whole railroad is amazing. TFTC

07/31/2018 By Abby the Explorer
This was the start of our great adventure. Coords seemed a bit off, but we finally got it. TFTC!

07/22/2018 By KianaKai
Man! The short walk up to the cache from the road was tougher than this sea-level-dweller thought it would be!
Found with Dan1868

07/20/2018 By FelixFamilia
I'd seen some references to Boreas Pass, and so we decided that today was the day to explore. In the process of identifying information for a nearby virtual cache, we stopped here to see if we could find this one...and there it was! TFTC.