Tempered good news about repairs to Palisade rock wall

 In an exciting announcement CPR News published the article "After years of repairs and careful restoration, historic Alpine Tunnel Road reopens near Pitkin." The article lauds the multi-year work done to repair the rock wall damaged in 2016 by an avalanche. The damage closed the road for vehicles to the Alpine Tunnel station complex and the west portal for roughly eight years.  During that time, vehicles needed to be parked just a little upgrade of Sherrod Loop. Finally, as the article states, "After years of repairs, a historic road deep in the Rocky Mountains has finally reopened — just in time for fall." 

But the news is a bit tempered. If you read to the end, you come across this sentence: "There still is one hiccup when visiting the historic district: a large boulder that’s a little less than a mile from the historic tunnel. Visitors can park at the intersection of the Alpine Tunnel Road and Williams Road, and walk the rest of the way."

What??? 

There is no other info on the boulder and the circumstance surrounding it. But, essentially, you can at least drive over the old South Park grade eastbound past the former parking spot above Sherrod and, presumably, past the rock wall, but not much farther. 

...sigh

Parlin on the South Park Line: Then and Now (video)

Trains that traveled east toward the Alpine Tunnel left Gunnison and reached Parlin roughly 11 miles later. A few landmarks still exist to help one identify the former DSP&P/C&S grade through the small town. In this video I visited the site of Parlin and point out the location of the right-of-way and the wye. At the end we travel on today's CR-76 which is on the old right-of-way. Toward the end I point out where the ROW leaves the road. 

The west leg of the Parlin wye curved just behind the barn.

The Parlin post office.

Across US-50 is look westbound is the right-of-way leading to Gunnison.

The C&S grade is no CR-76 heading east out of Parlin. Not far from Parlin the right-of-way goes to the right (following the telephone poles) and the road veers to the left.

The Alpine Tunnel Route - RR Magazine June 1941

In June 1941, just over three decades after the abandonment of the Alpine Tunnel, Railroad Magazine published an article titled "The Alpine Tunnel Route." The author, Lewis R. Lathrop, was a D&RG fireman who knew South Park trainmen who ran trains over the "hill" through the famous tunnel and swapped stories with them in a cigar store. In fact, he started work with the Rio Grande just two years after the arrival of the DSP&P into Gunnison.

There are some epic stories in here including one in which a crew of trainmen and snow shovelers managed to turn an engine around with hydraulic jacks. I admit, I still don't understand how they did it. Essentially, a snow blockade kept them from getting through the east portal of Alpine Tunnel, but snow had drifted back behind them. They decided they had a better chance at plowing through the line westward back to Pitkin, but...they needed to turn an engine around with a plow on the front.

While discussing some epic snowbucking skills the South Park railroaders possessed, Lathrop, the D&RG man, admitted that the DSP&P had superior equipment to theirs and that the DSP&P railroaders were better skilled at fighting snow. As evidence he tells of a blockade of Marshall Pass where two South Park "hoggers" opened the Rio Grande line themselves.

Lewis A. Lathrop actually, as the article puts it, "crossed the great divide" a few months before publication of this article. His son Gilbert assisted with its completion.

*A few notes: the story of a stalled circus train being pushed by elephants on the Alpine Tunnel route is likely legend. 

Also, the article concludes by stating the rails over the pass were pulled in 1917. They were actually pulled in 1923 and 1924.

The day the South Park Line had "Gone to Glory"

 In the December 1943 edition of Railroad Magazine the publication reported the sad occasion of the final Colorado & Southern Railway narrow gauge run. Many of us are familiar with the well-publicized event (Even Life Magazine photographed it). I thought it was interesting to see an article from the time period itself. As the author wrote, on August 25th, 1943 the South Park Line had at last "Gone to Glory."

An eyewitness tale of riding the "Graveyard Run" in Clear Creek

In the June 1939 issue of Railroad Magazine a Burlington employee from South Dakota wrote an article describing a sad but historic ride he took on the Clear Creek Line. M.L. Hart saw a notice that the Colorado & Southern was going to abandon its narrow gauge line west of Idaho Springs including the Georgetown Loop. He asked and received permission to ride what he called the "Graveyard Run" on January 30th, 1939. 

Along the way, riding in the caboose and later a gondola of gravel, he chats with conductor Billy Maas who later pushes a caboose with his bare hands, interacts with famed railroad photographer Richard Kindig, watches the switching at Forks Creek, witnesses construction of Highway 6 in the canyon, and hears the annoyance of a workman in Empire complaining about the railroad's choice to cut the line farther east. Lastly, he takes a trip by car up to Georgetown just two months before the tracks will be torn up.

In the page below the author claims that the high bridge of the Georgetown Loop was originally built of wood. I've never heard that before. My guess is this is incorrect.

Thank you to Jim Reisdorff, publisher at South Platte Press, who graciously sent me any C&Sng articles that he came across while sifting through his old collection of Railroad Magazine. Jim is presently editing a book I wrote on C&Sng restorations.

The Heroic Tale of Billy Westall, South Park engineer

Billy Westall, a South Park engineer, gave his life to save the passengers on his eastbound train in Platte Canyon. He stayed at his post as it hit a slide in Platte Canyon on August 28, 1898, saving every life on the train. The monument to his sacrifice still stands in the canyon. 

Tommy Allen shares Westall's story in the video below. Allen enjoys sharing historical tales through his podcasts and videos entitled "Stories from the Midland." I was quite impressed at his effective storytelling and this video is a good introduction to his other work.

Enjoy!

Kurt

Related content:

Read about early restoration work to the monument in 1962.

Learn of vandalism to the Westall Monument in 1964.

Watch a video following the C&S roadbed today ending at the site of the monument.

Read a summary of the Billy Westall's sacrifice, the creation of the monument, and a move to restore it in the 1990s, 100 years after the accident.

A Visit to and a Video of Ohio City

 The South Park Line crossed the continental divide on its way to Gunnison, piercing the range with the famed Alpine Tunnel. After it came down the mountainside, it passed through a number of towns including the ill-fated Woodstock, the small town of Quartz, and the relatively-sizeable Pitkin. Beyond Pitkin, the next town was Ohio City at 8563 feet above sea level. 

Here is a video I made of my family's recent visit to show the various railroad sites there.

While the town is nowhere near the size of Pitkin, it still has a number of residents. 

One of its remaining early structures is the city hall building which was originally a mercantile business.

Present-day Country Road 76 crosses through the center of town. The railroad parallels the road here, but about a block away. 

Walking down a dirt town road you can find where the railroad facilities once stood, though there is nothing besides map knowledge and the telephone poles which follow where the grade was to give it away.

In the photo below, the grade ran in a perpendicular line to the road along the gate at the end of the road. To the left would have been the water tank. To the right would have been the section house and a platform. Out of sight to the right was where the depot stood.

A photo looking west. The right-of-way follows the telephone lines. The section house and depot would have been to the right.

A photo looking east (toward Pitkin and Alpine Tunnel). The roadbed goes through the distant pickup truck. The water tower would have been on the left.

Here is the site (looking east) in railroad days.

My favorite experience of my family's visit to Ohio City was when my 12-year-old daughter and I climbed a hill to attempt to recreate an old hilltop photo of the town showing a mixed train with two engines just about to enter Ohio City. It was a huff and puff climb, but we did it and got a fairly close photo.

Photos:

The following from Tom and Denise Klinger's South Park's Gunnison Division Memories & Then Some:

Overhead photo of town and hilltop photo of town: Gunnison County Pioneer and Historical Society