Leadville line reopens track close to Climax

  A train on the South Park Line reached 11,250 feet again in 2023.  The Leadville, Colorado & Southern Railroad, the highest adhesion railroad in North America, completed work this fall to allow its trains to reach this spot near Climax for the first time in six years.

The Leadville, Colorado & Southern Railroad operates on the original Denver South Park & Pacific grade that once stretched from Denver to Leadville, crossing three mountain passes, two of them over the Continental Divide.  The railroad, eventually operated by the Colorado & Southern Ry., in time, sought to abandon all of its narrow gauge lines and succeeded in 1937 with one exception, a 14-mile stretch between Climax and Leadville needed to serve the Climax Molybdenum mine.  Standard gauged in 1943, it ran until 1986, by then absorbed into the Burlington Northern Railroad.  Purchased by Ken and Stephanie Olsen in 1987 and still a family-run business, the LC&S has operated a tourist train on the line continually since 1988.

The railroad owns the track to within a mile of the top of Fremont Pass, but the last few miles have been inaccessible for the last six years.  Track from a segment known as Devils Tail Tangent at MP 140.4 had “slid down the hill over the years,” according to Sean McBride, an LC&S engineer.  This necessitated the turnaround spot for their trains to be at MP 140 near the old French Gulch water tank.  As an aside, the French Gulch Tank once served narrow gauge engines but was moved to the other side of the tracks after the line was widened.  It still stands today.

Sliding track at Devils Tail Tangent-all photos Sean McBride

Work on Devils Tail Tangent.  Climax in distance.

After track work

McBride explained to me that the crew lifted the track at Devils Tail, roughly six feet higher in at least one spot.  After this, he says, “we did some profiling and surfacing between there and the end of the line.”  The line ends in the center of what is known as Stork Curve.  With this section refurbished, LC&S trains can now reach 11,250 feet, a height not accessible since 2017.

End of LC&S track at Stork Curve

Stork Curve.  A mile ahead (east) of the caboose is Climax.

Stork Curve

Out of curiosity, I asked if the track remains from Stork Curve to the mine.  McBride explained, “Technically the tracks do still reach Climax and are still in the ground on Climax property as I understand. We used to own to the front gate at the top of the pass but a few years after Climax reopened they bought back about a mile of r.o.w. from us, so that now the highest we can take the train is Stork Curve.”

C&S fans are thrilled with the rebuilt segments of the railroad such as the Georgetown Loop and the Como complex, but unlike those lines, tracks and trains have never left the ground between Leadville and Climax, and while they may be standard gauge, the LC&S has kept the South Park’s High Line alive nearly 130 years after tracks first conquered these mountains.

C&S Caboose 1009: C&Sng at the Colorado RR Museum video

 C&Sng caboose 1009 holds the distinction of starting out on the Denver South Park & Pacific in the 1880s and ending her career with the end of the C&S narrow gauge, bringing in the rear of the last C&S narrow gauge train on August 25th, 1943.  

She seems to have spent some time as a cabin or shed or both in Buena Vista, Colorado after being dismantled.  Thankfully, Bob Richardson, founder of the Colorado Railroad Museum tracked her down and brought her to the Golden museum in 1961.

Here is a video I made including a short summary of her post-abandonment life and a look at her present, beautiful status at the museum.

For a more full story of the CRRM C&Sng equipment, including caboose 1009's story, see my series The Railroad Riches of Golden.

A few other views of 1009 from my CRRM visit:

The Only Known Photo of an Intact Midway Water Tank

Certain C&S water tanks have gotten lots of photographic attention during operation days and even during abandonment.  Some, however, never graced a single negative, or if they did, they haven’t surfaced or aren’t widely circulated.  Such has been the case with Midway Tank at MP 168.66 on the western slope of the route through the Alpine Tunnel, that is, until recently.

The very photogenic Tunnel Gulch Tank, 1960s- Dow Helmers photo

Tunnel Gulch water tank, a little over 4 miles upgrade from Midway, has appeared in many photographs.  While none of them are from operational days, the water tank, erected to replace the Woodstock tank destroyed by avalanche in 1884, has graced many photos after abandonment.  It seems to have intrigued visitors to the rail-less grade.  Numerous photos show how it, ever so slowly, tipped forward and letting its funnel drop and hang lifeless.  The water tank appeared destined to be a pile of wood and metal bands.  Thankfully, in 1959, the Mile-Hi Jeep Club saved her from ruin with a restoration that set her to rights again.

1905 photo of train leaving Midway Tank

Midway Tank, in contrast, has been camera-shy.  It is famously mentioned in the caption of an iconic 1905 photo of an eastbound C&S mixed train with its helper engine No. 57, piloted by Walt Parlin, just ahead of a combination car.  The train is pulling away after filling up for the strenuous climb to Alpine.  Yet, the photo does not actually show Midway tank. 

Midway Tank's Remains 2018, upgrade of the base

Following the end of service in 1910 between Quartz and Hancock, Midway Tank, while considered “practically new” by the railroad company, was left to the elements.  She collapsed over the years without any known photographic evidence.  Her discarded remains litter the ground to this day by her still-intact base.

Photo of Midway Tank intact

It was to my surprise, then, when a  photo of Midway Tank jumped out at me from my computer.  A few years back I purchased a bunch of old photos without captions or dates from eBay.  They are all color images of abandoned remains near Alpine Tunnel.  My guess was that they were from the 1950s or 1960s.  I barely knew one of the photos included a water tank since the structure was so overgrown with trees.  Yet, with a closer look, one can make out the metal tank bands that have slipped down at angles pointed at the grade.  The board where the spout once hung sticks out through the Aspen leaves.

The trees were actually what tipped me off that this was not another photo of Tunnel Gulch Tank.  Tunnel Gulch is always easily visible in a clearing of sorts, surrounded by lots of pine trees.  In contrast, the tank in my photo, as well as the site of Midway’s base today, is crowded with Aspens.  

Midway Tank base 2018-notice dense Aspen trees

Tunnel Gulch Tank 2018-notice pine trees

Tunnel Gulch Tank - notice pine trees and visibility

The tree difference helped solve another problem: the C&TS photo site has four photos labeled as Midway Tank, but the proliferation of pines and the visibility of the tank make it quite clear that the two showing an intact tank are mislabeled (Also Midway's pipe housing is in the back unlike Tunnel Gulch's which is in the front).  

One last hurdle remained for identification.  The trees were certainly a clue, but what about the rock slide just upgrade in the photo?  I watched back through GoPro footage I filmed in 2018.  While the Aspens were present at Midway, there was no telltale sign of that slide.  

I reached out to Bob Schoppe to see if he had any insight.  Sure enough he had the same photo, but it was reversed (It was also labeled with the day June 24, 1956).  If his was the right direction, that would put the rock fall downgrade from the tank.  I jumped back on my GoPro footage and sure enough, there it was.  My photo was backwards.

Here is the photo in its correct form.  Photo is facing downgrade.

Here is the rock fall in the photo above looking upgrade.  Midway Tank's base is just around the trees in the center.

So, there we have it: the only known photo of an intact Midway water tank.  Sadly, it is so engulfed in trees we can hardly make many determinations about the structure.  Hopefully, this article will inspire a reader to say, “What a sec!  I have a photo of that tank!” and bring another photo to light. 

Following the C&S through Platte Canyon video - South Platte to Muldoon

Not long ago Phil Stock reached out to me and offered to share some of his photos and videos, particularly his drive of the South Park Line's right-of-way through Platte Canyon, starting at South Platte.  I was very appreciative, especially as I have not had the chance to visit this stretch myself.  

Using his footage I put together the first of, in time, a series of videos of driving the old C&S line through Platte Canyon.  I point out details and historical notes along the way and try to match up some photos from the railroad days.

Enjoy!

Kurt