Now and Then: Reopening Alpine Tunnel (video)

While looking through a walk we took to the east portal of Alpine Tunnel back in 2018, I noticed a photo location that looked very similar to an old 1895 photo, so I put this together to line the two up.  

Enjoy!

The Ties Left Behind at Alpine Tunnel - part 3

As we continued walking east, away from the east portal of Alpine Tunnel, and farther into more densely wood segments, there are longer stretches of ties in more intact states.

A few spots like this one seem protected due to the alternate walking routes next to the right-of-way.

I'm not exactly sure why the walking habits of hikers have gradually moved away from the roadbed at some points like above.  

A close-up on some ties.

Here is another example of a small alternate walking trail to the side that attracts more feet than the ties.  There are several of my kiddos in the distance. :)

The Ties Left Behind at Alpine Tunnel - part 2

This is a continuance of photos I took of remaining ties along the route between Hancock and the east portal of Alpine Tunnel.  These are taken on the walk east from the tunnel toward Hancock.

This photo is still a short distance from East Portal.  Remaining ties on this segment have survived when rock fall has covered them from the elements and pushed hikers and (in the past vehicles) from being on them.

This is the same as the above shot but with less light.

As the roadbed enters the wooded stretch (roughly the two miles toward Hancock), more ties have survived.

This stretch, like a number in this section, has been nearly overtaken by vegetation and, thus, nature has inadvertently preserved the ties.

Another shot of the same section.

Here is Part 3

Here is Part 1

The Ties Left Behind near Alpine Tunnel - part 1

An abandoned railroad line with little to no remnants of its physical existence (outside of the engineering of course) can easily be mistaken as just a hiking or biking route or some old access road, but the existence of remaining railroad ties reminds the un-train-minded that this is not just a trail.  It also encourages the railfan that "something" is still hanging on to keep the history of the line alive.

One reason I love the eastern three miles of the South Park Line's roadbed to the east portal of Alpine Tunnel is that quite a few stretches of ties remain in place.  They are in various stages of decay but still hang on 108 years (the photos below are from 2018) after the last train rolled over them in 1910.

The following series of blog posts will include photos or remaining ties between Hancock and the east portal.

(Sadly, some of the tie remains have gotten so faint you may have to click on the photos to expand them to actually make out the ties.)

Heading west

I didn't take many photos in this direction due to my focus on filming the entire walk with my GoPro.  You can see that video here.  

The photos above and below are from our hike towards the east portal of Alpine Tunnel.  We have left Hancock and are walking west.

In spots like these the ties have been spared many feet due to more people walking to the right of the roadbed (except my family!...and those other people in the background).

Heading East

With the GoPro video of the walk west completed and having spent time exploring the East Portal remains, we now started our return walk east.

In this photo not far from East Portal just a few remnants of ties remain.

These ties have persisted since rock fall has covered them and hikers have trod a path around the rocks.

A lonely tie remains right in the middle of the roadbed.

Here is another tie (or the same one as above?) still hanging on under the dirt and rocks.

Here is Part 2

Following the C&S over Boreas Pass - Boreas to Farnham Spur - video

I posted videos to experience the C&S from Como to Boreas Summit a few years back and have finally gotten to do a little work on the stretch west of Boreas heading toward Breckenridge.  This video covers one mile from the summit through to the site of Farnham or Farnham Spur.  I found a few railroad-era photos to line up along the way and even some shots of Farnham Spur that I had not seen before (on the Breckenridge History Archives site).

Enjoy!

Kurt

Here are the previous two parts of this video series:

 

And one video covering the remaining structures and displays at Boreas as they were in 2018.

South Platte, Waterton, Foxton, Buffalo video

I found an enjoyable video (found at the bottom of this post) that covers a stretch of the Platte Canyon route of the Colorado & Southern/DSP&P.  It was produced by Jim Hansen for a series called Jeep Trails.  It includes film, historical and present-day photos, and some good narration including colorful stories.  

Of particular interest to South Park fans are:

2:19 South Platte and the still-standing (for now) South Platte Hotel.  Hansen also goes into the story of the hotel's original owners. 

4:38 Waterton and the rock formations that were popular in railroad days and today.

5:06 Foxton, including the log building that still remains from the days of the DSP&P and C&S.

5:34 Lastly, Hansen shares about the town of Buffalo (Creek) and the JW Greene Mercantile building.

For my visit to spots farther west up Platte Canyon see

Part 1

Part 2

Why didn't the Keystone (Mill Gulch) bridge end up in Denver?

Not long ago, I posted a video (see below) showing the former South Park Keystone Bridge (also known as Mill Gulch Bridge) in Helen McGraw Tatum Memorial Park in Bailey, Colorado.  I found a little more background on why it didn't end up in Denver as planned (as discussed in this 1977 Rocky Mountain Rail Report).  The information came from pages 393 and 396 of The Mineral Belt Vol II -- Old South Park -- Across the Great Divide published in 1978 by David S. Digerness

"The road below the dam would make one crossing of the South Platte River at the location of the existing narrow-gauge railway bridge at Keystone.  That structure will be replaced with a steel-beam concrete-deck bridge, with a 22-foot running surface employing the existing bridge abutments.  It is planned that the historic Keystone bridge will be carefully dismantled, and each piece will be marked and stored at Kassler for future use whenever an appropriate site is located.

"It is interesting to note that the Keystone bridge was offered to the City and County of Denver by the Denver Water Board in the fall of 1977.  The bridge was to have been used as a pedestrian crossing on the South Platte River in the city – positioned so that the Auraria campus parking lot could have been used for public parking during Bronco football games.  However, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) stepped in and said the bridge belonged to them and the Denver Water Board could not give it away because they did not own it.  It seems that when the railway abandoned their right-of-way, the bridge was left behind – and bridge, right-of-way and all reverted back to public domain administered by the BLM."

Some other info on the process of dismantling the bridge in 1978 can be found here from the Rocky Mountain Rail Report.