Recently I moved cross country, and as luck would have it, I-70 was washed out by the spring thaw, near Vail, Colorado. All traffic was detoured over the old US route 24, through the Tennessee pass, which was a lovely, scenic journey. (wish you coulda seen those semi’s having to deal with 7% grades and hairpin turns, it was like a ballet)
Of course, I couldn’t help but to notice the mile upon mile of static railway, and wondered whose “failure story” it must have belonged to.
Week or so later, I pick up the latest issue, and there it is, all layed out for me, (talk about coincidence), and having recently “been there”, it was especially meaningful.
Having seen the UP traffic paralleling the Colorado river through most of Colorado from Utah eastward, it’s hard to imagine anyone prefering the “mountain goat” skyline path to the seemingly easy flowing path UP enjoys in it’s priveliged course along what little flat land exists to either side of the river, for “thru” freight, if they had a choice. A seeming “no brainer”, unless the Tennessee path route generated traffic locally, something I saw little evidence of even being possible…not much industry in them thar hills…
Or is/was there? Anybody know?
As an Aside, the one thing I noticed in passing was how freshly painted much of the signaling looked along the Tennessee pass line, which suprised me after reading just how long it had been dormant. Bright bright silver shine on those poles, has this been a part of preserving the value of the standing (but dormant) asset?
Nary a live train did I see on the route, I’ll admit that, but some of the rails had a shine to them too, as opossed to the all too familiar orange powder.