From 1870 until 1945, the Colorado Central Railroad (later called the Colorado & Southern) rolled along 8th Street on its journey to the mountain towns. Several Golden industries clustered along 8th Street to be near the railroad, including a paper mill, a grist mill, and brickworks. Once automobiles came along, they drove alongside the tracks.
In 1896, the passenger depot was moved from the Goosetown neighborhood (east of Ford Street) to Washington Avenue and 8th Street. When the depot was built, a 33,000 gallon water tank was added on the opposite side of 8th Street. Steam locomotives needed to refill their water tanks frequently, so the railroad took advantage of the passenger stop to tank up.
The railroad discontinued service into the mountains in 1945, so they removed all rails and equipment through Clear Creek Canyon and all the way back to Goosetown. I haven’t found a specific reference to removal of the water tank, but I assume it was taken down at roughly the same time.
8th Street has gentrified considerably over the past 75 years, but it’s fun to remember its original use as a railroad route.
