Mysteries of Alpine - Part 6: The last train through Alpine Tunnel? 110 year anniversary

 110 years ago on this day, November 10, 1910, the last train went through the historic Alpine Tunnel...or was there another?  I explored this questionable date in the below article previously found in The Bogies & the Loop. 

Mysteries of Alpine - part 6

On the afternoon of August 16th, 1977, Elvis Presley was found dead in his Memphis home. Or was he? A long-standing mystery suggests that the King of Rock and Roll may have faked his death and has been sighted numerous times since that fateful day. 

The King of South Park Lore, the route of the Alpine Tunnel, also has a curious ending. To be sure, the bell tolled for the majestic route over "the hill" late in 1910. But unlike the final scheduled narrow gauge movement on the C&S in Leadville on August 23rd, 1943, the date of the funeral train on the Gunnison division lacks an equivalent Time magazine-covered event.

November 10th, 1910 is the most common date given for the last run through the bore. It is based on Dow Helmer's interview with a South Park fireman named Zed Scott. Recorded in Helmer's 1963 Historic Alpine Tunnel book, Scott claims decisively, "I remember distinctly, the last train through Alpine Tunnel. The date was November 10, 1910....it was a mixed train, eastbound for Como."

Scott's definitive claim flies in the face, however, of C&S company announcements. On approximately October 10th, one month prior to Scott's date, a minor cave-in occurred in the tunnel. Mac Poor in his iconic DSP&P book states that, "the management inferred that the damage was beyond repair." On October 14th a Gunnison newspaper reported to "have positive information that the C.&S. has decided to close the railroad to Denver for the winter, perhaps permanently" and by October 24th the railroad's management "announced that all through service to Gunnison would be discontinued."

While most agree that the cave-in was simply a good excuse to justify killing the expensive line, few deny that it occurred in actuality. (See note at bottom for a correction on this) If Scott is right, though, they must have cleaned it up enough to continue running trains. Yet, if the management was using the cave-in as a motive for abandonment, why would they clean it up?  Apparently, that cave-in was not "beyond repair." 

One way or another trains kept running into November 1910. The Gunnison News Champion commented on November 4th that the railroad "still runs a train every other day but probably will stop that shortly." Could the 10th, then, have been that final funeral train? 

One source suggests that it was not. A. A. Brownie Anderson, a C&S trainman, kept meticulous notes on his C&S trips, recording in his time book nearly every train he worked on. He fired several trains over Altman Pass, the last of which were recorded as November 12th & 13th, 1910 with engine 55. Both of these dates exceed Zed Scott's "distinct" conviction that the 10th was the final run.

I have several theories concerning the inconsistencies between our principal defendants. First, it is clear that the management's statements were conjecture. Plus, they had a motive: to bury this money-drain of a line. Plus, at least two separate trainmen without a motive mention runs in November.

Zed Scott is closer to the truth, but we have reason to question his accuracy. He was speaking on memory roughly fifty years after the event in question. On the other hand, he may have been on the last scheduled run. Maybe Anderson's trains were specials as the line wrapped up for the winter. This year, as so many others, they probably figured the line would open again in the spring.

A. A. Brownie Anderson's dates, then, are the most accurate we have. He does not have a motive, and he recorded the dates on their actual occurrence. Was then, the last run through the tunnel on November 13th, 1910? It was Anderson's final run through the bore, for sure, but we may never know how many or if any followed after that day.

To those whose coffers the tunnel was draining, the line's death could not have come soon enough, but for those of us who love this route lined with ghostly debris like the city of Rome, it was laid in its grave all too soon. Still, the grand mysteries draw us ever more to it, because our spirits long to know the details of the final stand of this mighty hero who stared Mother Nature in the face for so many years. While we may never know the exact date that it was finally brought low, in its short life, this line, like its name, Alpine, rose to great heights that still inspire us today.

UPDATE: 

So now I have to discredit my own article. I wrote it a few years ago before I had access to Daniel W. Edwards' Documentary History of the South Park series. Having just checked that book now, I found more facts. In Daniel W. Edwards' Vol. 1, he quotes from a Nov. 20, 1910 letter from the James D. Welsh, C&S General Superintendent, where Welsh wrote, "This leaves our Gunnison district west of Hancock so it can be closed as soon as we are able to move 48 coal and one box car to that territory." Daniel W. Edwards, the editor, then inserts a comment "This suggests that several freight trains hauling empty coal cars to Gunnison passed through Alpine Tunnel after November 20 and that probably the last engines, running light or going east-bound with a few cars, had gone through Alpine Tunnel by December 1."

Note on the cave-in:

It has come to my attention that there is good reason to believe that the cave-in may never have actually occurred, or was so minor that it was easily patched up.  The fact that quite a few trains traveled through the tunnel afterwards is one case against its existence.  Daniel Edwards (mentioned in the update above) also wrote, ""the so-called flood in Trout Creek Canon in the summer of 1910 was used later as a reason to justify why the South Park abandoned that stretch of line, just as the 'cave in' at Alpine Tunnel was cited for abandonment of the line from Hancock to Quartz."

Mysteries of Alpine-part 4, Tunnel entrances-sealed or blown up?

A common device used by mystery writers is the use of the red herring.  It’s a false trail that distracts the reader and the sleuth from the real evidence.

Interior of Alpine Tunnel-source unknown

As stubborn webs cling to old timbers of the Alpine Tunnel so do red herrings cling to the web called the internet.

Throughout the years, as I have snooped around various websites that reference the tunnel, odd comments arise like the following: “The tunnel caved in from years of erosion.”

Other sites state “the tunnel has been sealed off for safety reasons.”  Even Wikipedia, in its opening paragraph on the tunnel, refers to it as “sealed shut.”

It gets stranger from there as talk of explosives creep up.  According to one jeep club, the “tunnel was closed (the entrances blown up) years ago.”  Another site states, "The entrance to the Tunnel was sealed with dynamite many years ago.”

West Portal 1989-Author's Collection

Did the forest service do this?  They may have had reason to consider it.  There was a time when visitors inside the crumbling tunnel were common.  One visitor to the tunnel in the 1970s remarked that there were up to 25 people inside “including some biker types” when he ventured within.  There was enough concern that rumors spread that the county was going to clear out the debris leading to the west portal and install a gate to keep people out.  So, did they resort to blowing it up?

Thankfully, Ray Rossman set the record straight.  He commented, “There has not been any action using any explosives to seal the tunnel.  All the closure action has been that of mother nature and the slow decay of the granite.  The only action I have
authorized was placing a rather large boulder to prevent entry into the western portal.”

The real culprit in the end, then, is Mother Nature.  Unfortunately, she may be doing more damage than the supposed dynamite might have.

In a later correspondence he remarked, “I have been monitoring the west portal closely and we continue to slowly lose the battle there….During the winter of 2002/2003 it appears that a portion of the tunnel on the western side collapsed.  The natural repose of the tallas debris now goes straight back for about 20' right behind where the upper portion of the stone portal is located.  Very
disheartening.  For those lucky few to have seen the interior, I think they have glimpsed at a piece of history perhaps now gone from our view.”

Alas, the plot thickens, but at least the red herring-colored dynamite can be thrown back into the sea.

Author at East Portal 1991

Below are various websites with wacky statements about what "happened" to the tunnel:

Says west portal collapsed
Says west portal caved in
Covered by landslides:
Tunnel has been sealed
Tunnel has been sealed.
West sealed BECAUSE East Portal collapsed in 1992
Another.
Tunnel sealed by a cave in & plans to open part of tunnel
question about forest service blowing it up.
both sides blown up “tunnel was closed (the entrances blown up) years ago"

Mysteries of Alpine-part 6: Were the tracks in the Alpine Tunnel ever abandoned?

The line from Hancock to Quartz through the Alpine Tunnel was abandoned in 1910...or was it?  The answer is “not exactly.”  In practice, of course, the trains stopped running, but when it came to official recognition of trackage, it gets a little murkier.

The rails themselves moldered away for thirteen years before the C&S finally pulled them, so those inactive tracks were still on the books for over a decade after the last steel wheels pulled by a locomotive rolled over them.  In fact, the words, “Abandon line between Hancock and Quartz” shows up in a C&S report dated September 17, 1923!  In this same report the cost of all the items retired is listed.  Included in this list is the mileage, specified as “M.P. 160.55 to 162.71 and M.P. 163.42 to 173.81.”  Why the gap between 162.71 and 163.42?  That 0.71 segment of a mile is presumably the track inside the tunnel and out of the west portal that for various reasons was unredeemable by the scrapper (An exploration of those reasons can be found here and here).

Lew Schneider-1958

So, this short segment technically remained on the C&S’ official mileage amount.  The following month, October 1923, a document entitled “C&S Report of Changes in Official Mileage for Oct. 1923” lists, “Hancock to Quartz...Length 12.86 miles.  12.44 miles taken up.  Length [remaining] .42 miles.”  Despite the .42 versus .71 discrepancy, the point is that this stretch of track was still considered a part of the railroad.  In fact, Daniel W. Edwards remarks, “One might argue then that the tracks through the Tunnel were never officially abandoned and remained part of the C&S’ official mileage!”

John Sanderson

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

Mysteries of Alpine-part 3, Remaining Rails and the Stone Boarding House

Mysteries of Alpine-part 3

By Kurt Maechner

By 1924 a pile of rocks and a blocked tunnel allowed a small stretch of track to hang on several more decades.  So, where did the rails go that remained between the supposed rock fall near the Palisades and the entrance to the tunnel?  According to Ray Rossman, who has done so much work at the tunnel complex, the answer is: the Forest Service.  In 1959, they began the process of shearing off the ties and rocks to make the road passable.  Presumably, the remaining rails went as well.

The last set of untouched rails outside the tunnel, then, were those under the collapsed snowshed at the west portal.  I saw them on my visit to the tunnel in the early 1990s.  Rossman wrote that when the snowshed timbers were removed, those rails were used as part of the recreated track that now runs in front of the restored telegraph office.

Mystery #3: The Haunted Boarding House

I couldn’t resist the title.  The stone boarding house of the Alpine Tunnel facilities wasn’t haunted, but somehow it was abandoned…long before 1910. 

Most assume that the original boarding, or section, house burned in the 1905 fire.  It was at this point that the C&S built the two story boarding house that stood so prominently next to the small telegraph station.  It only makes sense that this structure was built to replace the burned one…except that it never burned. 

Take a look at the bottom 1906 photo on page 282 of the DSP&P Pictorial Supplement.  The engine house is clearly blackened and destroyed from the recent fire.  The stone boarding house, however, is not charred a bit.  This picture lends an interesting clue to its story, though.  The roof, while not burned, is nearly entirely collapsed. 

Rewind to the year 1896, one year after the tunnel’s reopening.  On page 280 of the same book, one can see the roof of the boarding house in a significant state of deterioration.  No tar or shingles appear either. 

Let’s rewind once more.  Mac Poor noted that 1890 UP records indicate a “small section house” was built.  He gathers that this must be what eventually became the station or telegraph office.  So, within 8 or 9 years from the tunnel opening, there was deemed a need to replace the stone structure.  Why?

My theory is that the stone boarding house was used from the opening of the tunnel through the first closing in 1890.  The following years of idleness slowly deteriorated it.  Yet, there must have been another reason why it wasn’t deemed worth fixing upon the tunnel’s reopening in 1895.  The engine house certainly was rejuvenated.  Was a stone structure too cold?  Was there some defect in its construction?  Was it too small?  The answers to these questions may forever remain a mystery.  Whatever the reason, the company seemed okay to let it just fall apart.   

Note: I want to express my appreciation to Hart Corbett who brought many of the above details to light through a DSP&P forum correspondence several years ago. 

Mysteries of Alpine-part 2

Mysteries of Alpine-part 2

By Kurt Maechner

Mystery #2: The line from Hancock to Quartz was scrapped between 1923 and 1924, so why was the track inside Alpine Tunnel and a mile down the west slope left after dismantling?

When the rails were finally pulled up between Hancock and Quartz, the C&S engineering department   claimed that it was “impossible” to get the rails inside the tunnel because of cave ins and “considerable” ice buildup. This reasoning is partially an alibi.  The C&S strangely evades reference to leaving an additional one mile of track extending from the west portal.  Clearly there were other villains hampering the scrapper.

The most logical approach would have been to tear up the track from Quartz all the way to the railhead at Hancock, but since the tunnel was impassible, it had to be done in two segments.  The west side was torn up first in 1923 and then the east side of the route in 1924.  The cave ins and ice that caused this issue, though, were largely confined to the east portal, not the west.

A Colorado resident named Bill Turner recalls entering the tunnel in 1923.  Dow Helmers recorded Bill in Historic Alpine Tunnel stating that the east “tunnel entrance was pretty well iced up.  [However, he] climbed over the ice and found, after the first fifty feet or so, that the tunnel was in excellent condition.”  So, why could the tunnel rails not be pulled from the western approach?  To add to the mystery, Mr. Turner, who is quoted above, is in fact the very man contracted to dismantle the line.

Turner had numerous difficulties to surmount notwithstanding the blockage at east portal.  One was motive power.  As photos show us, locomotives are often used to haul dismantled rails away, but Turner did not have this option.  I suspect it is due to the fact that 13 years of idleness had made the tracks too unstable for an engine.  His only option, then, was to use horses to haul a flat car up the grade and then ease the loaded car down by hand. 

Despite his motive power, Bill Turner’s track record was one of dogged persistence.  He stated that he pulled the Hancock-Atlantic rails “from under the snow and [brought] them down on sleds.”  He also scrapped the line through Trout Creek Canyon.  Since the line had been rebuilt several times due to floods, there were rails still under the mud.  Helmers comments that Turner “would dig a hole to locate the rails and then run a plow along the rail edges, opening a furrow so many of these rails could be salvaged.”

So, what stopped a man like this on the west slope from getting the rails in the tunnel?  Well, this mystery is unsolved.  In Dow Helmer’s interview with Turner, he makes no reference to it.  But there are some clues elsewhere.  Mac Poor in DSP&P quotes a Gilbert A. Lathrop who visited the pass in 1936 as writing, “Although the pike closed down about 30 years ago, a locomotive could still run on the track to a point where a rubble of massive granite chunks came down the mountain just east of the Palisades, blocked the line and kept some scrap iron salesmen from completing their job of total demolishment.”

While Lathrop’s discovery is 13 unlucky years after Turner last trod the roadbed, the reference to a pile of rubble is our best clue to the truth.  Simply put, Turner must have run into this rock slide and determined that it was impossible to haul any of this rail up and over the rocks to his flat car. 

To add color to our mystery, a curious story came to light on the DSP&P forum a few years ago.  A poster said that he came across the following in a source he can no longer recall, but possibly a CRRM Annual.  He read that the scrapper, having run into the large pile of rubble, attempted to slide the rails straight down Tunnel Gulch to the lower grade and pick them up there.  However, “The rails got away from them down the steep Gulch and almost killed the men and the horse.  They decided that it was too dangerous and that the value of the rails not worth the extreme risk, so they abandoned the idea.”

So, who finally got the rails leading to the tunnel?  And where did all those ties go on the western approach?  That calls for a little more snooping...

    

Mysteries of Alpine - Part 1

Mysteries of Alpine

By Kurt Maechner

Dow Helmers, author of the definitive Historic Alpine Tunnel, named one of his chapters “Curse of Alpine.”  The eerie aura of four men who lost their lives working in the tunnel to the freak destruction of the town of Woodstock by an avalanche still hang in the air about the mountain.  Outside of these strange occurrences there are a number of mysteries concerning this route.  Having been abandoned long before fan trips and enthusiast visits, we are left with curious photos and the sketchy memories of those who worked the railroad to put pieces together.  I’d like to explore a few of these mysteries in a series of articles where I will attempt a bit of sleuthing to put together some answers to a few peculiar mysteries.

When you abandon a railroad you tear it up.  Look at the South Park and Clear Creek lines.  Within a year or so after abandonment the tracks were scrapped, hauled away to be melted down or used in mine shafts.  Yet, a perusal of photos of the line on either side of the Alpine Tunnel show tracks decades after abandonment.  To confuse the matter more, portions disappear at varying intervals. 

Mystery #1: The tracks of the South Park were torn up everywhere else after abandonment.  Why are there still tracks in the Alpine Tunnel to this day?  In addition, why were the tracks between Hancock and Pitkin still in place into the early 1920s? 

The tunnel was finally closed in 1910.  The reason given was: a small cave-in.  There are many who

question the significance of this cave-in.  Mac Poor states in his DSP&P book that “The cave in was not serious and could have been cleaned up; however, the management inferred that the damage was beyond repair.”  It may very well have been what the C&S management was looking for to convince the powers-that-be to allow them to finally discontinue service on this extremely expensive and operationally troublesome branch. 

However, the tracks weren’t pulled for another 13 years.  Why?  Poor states, "Due possibly to some legal stipulation incorporated in a mortgage, the rails between Hancock and Quartz were left intact for 13 years....In 1923, all the rail between these two points, with the exception of that between the east portal and a point about one mile beyond the west portal, was removed.”

In referring to this odd 13 year hiatus, Poor mysteriously uses the term “possibly” in reference to the mortgage conditions.  Yet, this is the only reference to this issue I have found in print.  Not being in the legal or mortgage profession, I would be curious to learn what kind of conditions would necessitate leaving rails down this long after abandonment. 

This unlucky number of years when the mighty Gunnison branch rails languished does explain at least one of our mysteries.  In 1923, “The C&S Engineering Department announced that due to some additional cave ins and a considerable amount of ice which had formed inside the tunnel during the 13-year period of idleness, they found it impossible to salvage any rail inside the bore." 

“Impossible” seems a bit unconvincing when you consider the plethora of reports from those who walked through the tunnel in the many decades after abandonment.  There was another reason those rails couldn’t be salvaged, or the ones down past the old engine house, but that mystery will have to wait for next time.