Was in Colorado a couple of weeks ago and drove along I-70 and stayed in Glenwood Springs and was saddened to see how “quiet” the former Rio Grande main line is under UP control as opposed to 30 years ago when I was last here. 30 years ago driving along I -70 I would pass a train almost every 20 minutes. Now I never saw a train at any time I-70 was parallel to or within sight of the Rio Grande main. While in Glenwood Springs I only counted about 10 or 12 trains over a 24 hour period (including the CZ both ways). 30 years ago I spent a night in Winter Park and remember hearing the thundering of trains heading upgrade to the Moffat Tunnel almost twice an hour all night long. Also sad to see weeds growing between the ties along the Tennessee Pass line. Sadly, when UP mothballed the line they also demolished almost all buildings. The town of Salida was rather sad that UP tore down their unique streamline moderne depot.
The Salida depot was demolished on Wednesday, January 23, 1985, by D&RGW, 10 years prior to the UP-SP merger. The only significant structure I can think of demolished by UP on the line is the sand tower at Minturn.
The train count through Glenwood Springs would normally be about 24 per day as of 2 years ago. It is down due to significantly reduced demand for North Fork coal.
RWM
(and they are running the bulk of the trains at night while the MTM/Roadmaster does battle with the curve relay gang up above Radium out of sight from Glenwood-Dotsero…also understand B&B is slapping band-aids on the tunnel drainage again)
Well, keep in mind that, 30 years ago, the DRGW routes (both Moffat and Tennesse Pass) were used for transcontinental traffic. In a tightly regulated era, a railroad like DRGW could get "bridge " traffic due to a variety of regulatory requirements (like merger conditions) that they could never have expected to get on their own. DRGW’s acquisition of SP after the failed ATSF-SP merger was a recognition that this era had ended. But, even with this transaction, acquistion of trackage rights over MP to Kansas City, and acquistion of two routes to Chicago (vial BN tackage rights from Kansas City and SPSL from St. Louis), the DRGW transcontinental routes were inferior to their competitors. The effect of the UP/SP merger was to remove most transcontinental traffic from the DRGW routes. This, of course, resulted in the complete shutdown of the Tennessee Pass route (which had virtually no local traffic between Canon City and Gypsum) and relegated the Moffat route to Colorado-Utah coal traffic and BNSF trackage rights trains (rights which BNSF acquired in the UP/SP merger)…
Just got back from a stay just a stone’s throw away from the Tennessee Pass line. Tracks are still there and the signals are still standing but dark, with many cabinets opened and stripped of their wiring. The locals park their pickups with the ends hanging over the tracks.
Learning of the on and off nature of mining in Colorado got me to wondering. Are there any natural resources along the route that could come back into play? Would there be other reasons the UP wouldn’t abandon it?
UP won’t abandon it (last Sept. it was almost placed back in service as TWC dark territory… what you saw in the signal cases is vandalism.)…they saw their earlier mistake at merger time and pulled the line off the abandonment list for reasons that are still valid today.
Coal, Moly, Hematite, Soda Ash, Lead, poor grade copper and timber in that country with mineral claims left and right (if you look at the MT/OG & mineral plats on record at BLM, the area is plastered with claims)…but there is material that is cheaper to recover elsewhere. In light of the Roan Mesa monkeywrenching, I doubt opening ANY new mine on the line will be easy or quick.
First run thru the line ought to be with a Jordan spreader up front.[:-,]
Well, I wouldn’t place any bets on UP restoring the Tennessee Pass line as a through route. The line’s been inactive as a through route since 1997.
Strategically, the Tennessee Pass line formed part of a route that included the MP “Hoisington” line across eastern Colorado and Kansas. The Hoisingon line is no longer available. Without an eastern outlet from Pueblo, the Tennessee Pass route makes no sense, as traffic to/from the line would have to move over the congested front range “joint line”. UP has only restored the portion of the TP line running from Gypsum to Minturn (the line segment from Dotsero to Gypsum was never shut down) , primarily to use the Minturn yard for car storage. It had to get FRA signal discontinuance authority to do this (the signals are completely inoperational), and the authority is only to a point just east of Minturn (called “West Belden”). UP never sought or received signal discontinuance authority beyond this point, so they obviously had no plans to use the rest of the line.