The last train from Alpine Tunnel was in...1915?

We know that the last train through Alpine Tunnel was in the final months of 1910, but did any other rail car ride over those rails from Hancock to East Portal or West Portal to Pitkin?  If we don’t count whatever cars were used to dismantle the line in 1923-1924, there may have been a few others.

Today when you visit the Alpine Tunnel, you notice the ubiquitous presence of ATVs.  The former South Park railroad grades are quite the playground these days.  However, this is apparently not a new phenomenon.  The April 21st, 1915 Buena Vista newspaper records an entertaining, albeit dangerous, incident involving a party of individuals riding a push car from East Portal downgrade to Romley.

At least seven people, a mix of men and women, seem to have been enjoying the thrill of riding a push car starting from the tunnel, when the car got out of their control.  One man tied a rope to himself and the car and jumped, hoping to slow it down so that some others could jump more safely.  Several riders did take the leap, sustaining various injuries.  The human brake finally succeeded in stopping the car after dragging the hero a full mile.  Shockingly, he only sustained minor injuries.

Besides the particulars of this event, it suggests that riding a car on the grade was not an unusual occurrence.  The article starts out nonchalantly with the words, “While returning from a trip to Alpine tunnel Monday...” as if this was hardly a rare happening.  Also one passenger was a certain “Miss Worthington, a school teacher from near Chicago.”  Other passengers included the wife of a school superintendent and a couple with their daughter.  This not was not a bunch of hoodlum teens pulling a prank, but a load of respectable adult citizens.

Records and photos indicate that the scrapper ferried the rails downgrade from the east portal on a horse drawn sleigh because of the snow, so unlike his work on the western slope, he did not seem to have used a rail car for his graveyard work.

So, what was the last set of steel wheels on the steel rails of the eastern approach to Alpine Tunnel?  It’s very likely it was a push car on a thrill ride.

Source:
Edwards, Daniel W. A Documentary History of the South Park Line: Vol. 5: The Gunnison District, Part II, 2016.