After 8 years, Alpine Tunnel Palisade Wall nearly complete!

The following is a great video that goes into great detail about the work to restore the largest rock wall at the Palisades on the way to Alpine Tunnel. 

The narrator is Marcus Trusty, founder of CORE (Colorado Off Road Enterprise), a motorized advocacy group. He along with many others has played an important role in seeing the 2016 avalanche damage to the rock wall repaired.

You will see great shots of the wall, of the work, and especially of rock scaling where you can see boulders come crashing down.

At one point Trusty dialogues with one of the stone masons. They discuss artifacts found during the work. Not much was unearthed, but the workers did find some spikes, a piece of rail, and "a train brake." Apparently these were taken to "the Pitkin guard station" to be put on display "up there." Not sure if he meant on display in Pitkin or at the Alpine Tunnel station. They also found "a lot of little nails and dynamite crates."

They also discuss the process of splitting rocks and how the workers today did it very similarly to the construction workers of the 1880s. They surmise that one of the original sources of rock when the railroad was built is at the present intersection of Williams Pass and the railroad grade just above the large rock wall.

One interesting fact was that Williams Pass was never graded very well because it was only intended as a temporary road for construction of the railroad. Is this accurate? Trusty commented that Hancock Pass, on the other hand, was a more regularly used road.

It was encouraging to learn from the video that work was also done to repair some of the other several walls along this stretch in addition to the famous large one.

Some have asked about the issue of drainage with the restoration and their work on that is also discussed.

The narrator estimates that the entire project, that required many different partners, came to about a million dollars.

Later Marcus Trusty goes into great detail about all the various groups and grants that made this work possible. It is almost hard to follow it all, but it is a reminder of just how many organizations and individuals it has taken to make this work happen. It should be sobering to realize that railfans and historical groups could not have pulled this off alone. We are indebted to the many non-railfan groups that finally made this 8-year-project come together.

See video of rock scaling above the Palisade Wall

The video below is put out by a gentlemen involved with a trail organization that has played a role and pushing to get funding for the restoration of the Palisade Rock Wall west of Alpine Tunnel. It is a year old at this point, but he details some of the work being done. 

The best parts of the video, though, are the drone shots. There is an epic one of rock scaling above the Rock Wall. You'll see a large boulder being sent down with many crashing results. It gives a good sense of how the avalanche came down in 2016 that broke out the wall (as well as the one that may have come down in 1884 and destroyed Woodstock). In that same shot, as the rock falls down, you get a unique view of the roadbed and Rock Wall from above.

There are additional drone shots of the wall as well as the roadbed that highlight the incredible 19th century engineering of the route.

The good news is that the video is right about most of the work he mentioned. As seen in my previous post, major reconstruction work occurred this summer. 

Alpine Tunnel Palisade Wall Repair Status 7-2024

Justin Kerns shared news on the repair work being done to the big Palisade Wall a few miles west of Alpine Tunnel. He posted the text and photos below over on the Narrow Gauge Discussion Forum and graciously gave me permission to repost it here.

Justin wrote:

An update on the progress at the Palisade Wall. Work commenced on 6/18/2024 and is going smoothly so far (Progress is estimated at 50% complete as of July 24, 2024). The hope is that it will be completed this season before weather shuts things down. For this summer FR839 below the wall is closed as is Williams Pass so there is no way to drive between Hancock and Pitkin. This is necessary during construction for safety reasons. 

Someone on the forum asked, "I'm curious if the historic blocks are being retrieved and replaced or are these new blocks for the new work?" 

Justin responded: There weren't actually too many stones missing. The old capstones fell over 100 years ago so those were made new in the same quarry area used for the original wall. As many of the stones that were swept down in 2016 as could be recovered reasonably were also re-used with some being newly cut. So it's a mix of original and new but all from the same granite area just up the road a bit. They are also repairing a few other smaller walls as needed along the grade.

Here are some photos of the progress:

C&S No. 2 modeled in Germany

Since the posting of the video of my visit to C&S baggage car No. 2 in Nebraska, a gentlemen from Germany reached out. He models the C&S and specifically made baggage car No. 2. You can see it running on his layout in the video below. Very cool that the C&S even has fans in Deutschland!

Sylized 1800s Georgetown Loop image

I found this online by accident. Maybe it has been around, but I don't recall seeing this stylized perspective of the Georgetown Loop before. It comes from this Mines Repository site. The image was produced when the Loop was operation under Union Pacific control.

The Last C&S Baggage Car (video)

 See the last C&S baggage car from my family's May 2024 visit to the Stuhr Museum of Grand Island, Nebraska.

The Last C&S Baggage Car Survives in NE

To the best of my knowledge, eight South Park passenger cars still exist. There are three coaches (70, 76, DSP&P 3 the “Geneva”-with only two surviving ends), two combines (20, DSP&P 7), one business car (911), one Railway Post Office (13), and one baggage car (2). Only two of these cars exist outside of Colorado. One is South Park combine No. 7, the “Como.” It resides on a ranch in Uva, Wyoming used as a family museum.

The other is C&S baggage car No. 2. 

from Midcontinent.org 

There were at least five C&S baggage cars. The railroad burned the remains of one that was involved in a 1902 wreck at South Park Junction. The remaining four, built between 1873 and 1874 and renumbered 1-4 in 1911, survived to the end of South Park passenger operations. The C&S stored them in Waterton by 1937. All four cars were considered “retired” or “dismantled” by 1939.

Baggage Car No. 2 in Waterton 1937, Richard Kindig

At least two of the baggage cars, Nos. 2 and 3, were then sold and used as sheds, both in the Longmont, Colorado area. The C&S sold 1874-built, 34-foot-long No. 2 to F.W. Kimmel of Lyons, Colorado. Its location by 1958 was referred to by a photographer as “on Johnson Farm” “north of Longmont.”

In 1980, the Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer in Grand Island, Nebraska purchased baggage car No. 2. The Stuhr Museum seeks to memorialize early life on the plains and includes a “Railroad Town.” At the time of No. 2’s arrival, Stuhr operated a narrow gauge railroad around the property by the name of Nebraska Midland powered by White Pass & Yukon No. 69.

A photo by Ken Martin when he visited the car possibly in 1980/1981. The car body was sitting on two piles of RR ties. The museum was in the process of reconstructing the platform roofs at the time. This shows the original paint when it arrived at the museum.

1981 Ken Martin photo. The roof ends have been added. Frame has yet to be fabricated and the steps have not been added yet.

2001. No. 2 is the second car. T. Greuter photo

As a wooden car exposed to the elements for decades, No. 2 was in bad shape when it arrived in Grand Island, but the Stuhr Museum worked to restore it to operation. The Museum fabricated its own steel underframe and set the car on D&RGW freight trucks. They also rebuilt the roof ends removed by the C&S to accommodate end platforms. Unfortunately, the museum’s railroad operation proved cost-prohibitive and the equipment simply turned into a static exhibit.  

By 1999, former Bogies & the Loop editor Jason Midyette lamented about baggage car No. 2’s condition, stating that it “may be beyond hope.”

A turn-for-the-better later occurred for No. 2. By at least 2006 the car has been stored inside along with a truly pristine wooden Florence & Cripple Creek coach. Restoration there and protection from the elements has brought the car back to very good condition. 

No. 2 is currently under the care of Tom Oshlo, director of facilities and grounds. Since the car is not in a public viewing location, you have to contact the museum and arrange a time to see it. On my family’s recent visit, we simply called a few days ahead. The staff arranged for Tom to meet us at the restoration shed. There he led us on a tour of the car, inside and out. It was interesting to see that the side windows, covered over in the 1880s or 1890s by the UP or DL&G, are visible again.

Oshlo seems to be quite a guardian of No. 2 and the F&CC car, making sure to resist museum administration’s occasional requests to display the cars outdoors. He also took time to point out original hardware and hardware that the shop fabricated to replace missing pieces. After Tom’s time with us, he was glad to let us explore on our own and take plenty of photos and video.

Florence & Cripple Creek Car No. 65

Interior of Florence & Cripple Creek Car No. 65

The grounds nearby the shed are littered with what I assume to be Rio Grande cars and pieces in quite rotten shape. I’m glad that No. 2, in contrast, has been cared for so well.

Old turntable and D&RGW flatcar

While I would like to see C&S baggage car No. 2 back home in Colorado, credit must be given to the Stuhr Museum for pulling her off the ground of a Longmont Farm in 1980 (and good thing too, because baggage car No. 3 got bulldozed by a developer in Longmont in February 2005 along with possibly C&S baggage/mail car 11). And despite her poor condition in the 1990s, No. 2 is, at least for the present, in a well-protected environment with a committed caretaker. If you’re driving along I-80 in Nebraska, the museum is a short distance from the highway and No. 2 alone is well worth the visit.

References:

C&Sng by Mallory Hope Ferrell

“Passenger Cars of the South Park” Midcontinent.org 

“C&S Baggage Car” and “South Park Coaches Question” on ngdiscussion.net

“Passenger Cars” davesriogrande.net

“1937 Was Only the Beginning” The Bogies & the Loop published by the Denver South Park & Pacific Historical Society. Jan. 2016