>Date: Sat, 13 Feb 1999 09:15:30 -0700
>To: [log in to unmask]
>From: dogyears <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Got CALICHE?
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>Got CALICHE?  http://www.swanet.org/caliche.html
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>CONSTRUCTION UNEARTHS EARLY RAILROAD RELICS 02/11/99 04:43PM SANTA FE, N.M.
>(AP) _ A construction crew has unearthed relics of Santa Fe's railroading
>past. A crew doing site work for a new bank uncovered a 70-foot diameter
>stone circular wall that once housed a turntable for steam engines on the
>narrow-gauge Denver & Rio Grande Railroad. Inside the walls is what
>resembles a circular track, with stone  rectangles that look almost like
>railroad ties. In the center is a cement block with anchor bolts _ part of
>the mechanism supporting the turntable, archaeologist Roger Moore of Aztec
>said. The turntable was used to switch the direction of train engines and
>to direct the engines into a nearby roundhouse, where mechanics could work
>on and repair engines. "This is the only narrow-gauge turntables we've been
>able to find in this part of New Mexico," Moore said. Since the find, the
>bank project's architect, Jon Dick, has suggested the planned pueblo
>architectural design no longer seemed appropriate. He wrote the City
>Council that the firm now wants to design the building with more railroad
>elements. The council has not made a decision. The old "Chili Line," as the
>railroad was known, was the only narrow-gauge spur ever to come to Santa
>Fe, Moore said. The turntable structure was built in about 1909, about the
>same time as an old train station that now is a restaurant, Moore said. He
>believes it was covered over about 1920. It was similar to the narrow-gauge
>turntable still used in Durango, Colo. It was made of wood and some metal,
>and turned by gangs of men and sometimes teams of horses, Moore said. The
>building's stonework was cut and set in mortar, said Moore, who speculated
>it was built by Italian stonemasons whose families came to Santa Fe to
>build St. Francis Cathedral. A decade-old city ordinance requires
>archaeological studies of property in historical districts where
>construction projects are planned.
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