Capansky's Garage and Dwelling

: the garage
: the dwelling

I’m trying to duplicate the whole town of Cisco, Utah in N scale. This post introduces one of the structures in the town.


A few businesses survived along US Hwy 50 & 6 at Cisco in the early 70s; 4 gas service stations, a mercantile/cafe, and a motel. Some private houses also seem to exist along Second Street. These structures sat beside Duke's Service on the east of Block 2, Cisco Townsite.

People at Cisco went out in the desert and gathered the left ties to build their houses[1]. Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad converted and relocated its narrow gauge mainline through Cisco in 1890. Decades later, in 1962, the portion of the curvy mainline including the Cottonwood siding east of Cisco was relocated, and, by 1969, the tight curve on its mainline located just west of the town was loosened[2, 3]. The standard ties used for the narrow gauge track were six feet long, and those used for the standard gauge track were nine feet long.


Block 2, Cisco Townsite was long owned by William Boston(1887 - 1951) and Eppie Nettice Fanning(1892 - 1976) Capansky, at least since 1931[4]. They came to Cisco in 1925[5].

William opened up the garage made of old railroad ties no later than in 1927[6]. The ties used seem the standard gauge ties according to their length. They lived in the adjoining house also made of old ties before they purchased and relocated a house from Green River. They established the gas service station next to the Garage in 1934.


The structures still survived, but in a rather obsolete style, when I visited in 2014. I used Google Maps to infer the dimensions of the structure to draw plans. I also referred to the photos found on the web. The result is shown below: of course, some imaginations are included.

All the photos were taken on Sep. 11, 2014.

revised, Jan. 31, 2017

revised, Jan. 29, 2018

revised, Mar. 13, 2023

revised, Oct. 17, 2023

revised, Apr. 14, 2024

[1] Dalton, Vonna Foy. “Some Remembrances of Picture Gallery and Cisco”, #51, Canyon Regacy, Moab Museum, 2004
[2] Jan. 11, 1962 Times Independent;
[3] 1969 USGS aerial photo
[4] Dec. 17, 1931 Times Independent;
[5] Jul. 27, 1969 Daily Sentinel;
[6] Jul. 21, 1927 Times-Independent;

: references and the drawings of garage and dwelling
: north and west elevations of garage and dwelling
　
　
ユタ州を走るD&RGWの沿線にある／あった、Ciscoという町を紹介している。この建物はCapansky’s Stationの東隣りに建っていた「Capansky's Garage and Adjoint」である。上にあるように、現在も建物はかろうじて建っている。

校倉造りの建物は、一般的には「log house」と呼ばれる。しかし、この建物は写真にある通り、丸太ではなく、製材された木材でできている。しかも次に示すように、木材は木材でも古枕木らしい。この建物の名前「Tie House」は、枕木（tie）でできているという意を込めた造語である。

1938年にCiscoに来たVonna Foy Daltonによれば、当時の住民たちは、彼女を含め、荒野に遺されていた枕木を拾ってきて家を建てたという。Rio Grandeが1890年に改軌・ルート替えされた後、そのまま放置されていたのだろう。確かに、同じような材料でできた小屋が他にも建っている。

この建物は、竣工年こそ不明だが、1944年撮影の航空写真に写っている。そして壁が、一般的なログハウスにおける長い丸太ではなく、比較的短い角材でできている。したがって、この建物もそのころ枕木を拾ってきて建てられたと推測できる。

全体の大きさはGoogle mapの航空写真を参考に割り出し、立面は画像を参考に復元した。