In June of 1958, 43 years after the abandonment of the route through Alpine Tunnel, and 25 years after the rails were pulled, Lew Schneider, a member of the US Army, made two trips to the remains at Altman Pass. Stationed at Fort Carson near Colorado Springs, Schneider and a friend made their first trek early in June. Starting up the eastern approach through Hancock, they ran into the same problem that often kept the C&S from getting their trains operating until mid-summer: snow. Lew and his companion were unable to cross over the pass due to the white menace-even on June 8th!
Returning much later on June 29th, the two made a successful attempt to reach the east portal, climb the pass, and explore the complex at the west portal.
At East Portal they found the scattered remains of the snow sheds with a few beams still jutting up towards the sky. One (or two?) of the snowshed doors is clearly visible flat on the ground. The railroad ties are also still embedded in the right-of-way leading into the tunnel. Having climbed up the pass they took a shot of the east portal and its approach from the top, revealing at least one or more telegraph poles still standing (one of which, I believe, is still standing today not far from Atlantic siding).
A short time later, after walking over Altman Pass, Schneider took a high up shot of the west portal station complex. One can make out the tracks, still with rails intact, coming from the tunnel and towards the station remains. The base of the second water tower (1906) can be seen by the side of the roadbed across from the second turntable.
After they made their way down to track level, Schneider snapped a shot of the still intact rails leading to the missing turntable. Wooden guard rails still flanked the right side of the walkway for the worker whose job it was to turn the locos. The guard railings on the left apparently had given way to time. Built on top of the original debris dump from the boring of the tunnel in the early 1880s, the tracks still hold strong to their ties, though they seem to bend at sharp angles now instead of soft curves.
Walking down past the stone boarding house, the telegraph office, and the old boarding house, Schneider took a shot of the telegraph office and boarding house through the remains of the formerly arched stone entrance of the old engine house. The wood boarding house is near complete ruin, though its side walls still remain in an upright, though disturbingly bent, angle. The telegraph office still stands proud with right angles, though its roof, with numerous cavities, has long ago given up the fight to keep out the elements.
Finally, Schneider walked a little ways down the mainline and took a photo of the area at the place where a switch stand still stood for the parallel passing track. The rotten ties in the foreground lead the way through a gentle curve past the still standing coal bin and on past the station, also revealing another telegraph pole defying nature. It is nice to see just how much of the south facing engine house wall and corners were still standing at this point. Photos from more recent times demonstrate how much of this was lost in the ensuing 50 years.
One oddity about this scene is the absence of rails at this point. Many photos attest to rails remaining on the ties from West Portal, past the station complex and down the mountainside for at least a short distance. It is my guess that a rockslide kept the scrapper from retrieving these rails when he salvaged them in 1923/4. I contacted Ray Rossman, the US Forest Serviceman who managed this area for many years, asking him what happened to those rails. He responded that the Forest Service turned the old roadbed into a drivable road on the west side in 1959, shearing off the old ties and so forth. Schneider's visit was in 1958 and, based on his photos, some rails had already been removed, though not all of them, as demonstrated by his other photos.
Had the Forest Service already begun their work and Schneider simply visited before its completion in 1959? While there is a documented missing rail inside Alpine Tunnel that must have been hauled off by some treasure hunter, in this case there appears to have been a length of track without rails on either side. Who could have hauled off full lengths of rails? Or was it a local who wanted it for some practical purpose on his farm or mine? Who would go through the trouble of driving up to 11,000 feet, over railway ties no less, to do this? Alas, we'll probably never know.
Source: "Lew Schneider Photo Gallery."
The Narrow Gauge Circle.
