I love the C&S but...

 ...I have to admit, this is some very impressive narrow gauge engineering!

The sight shortly after 10:17 is out-of-this-world.

Searching for the C&S Railway in the Brush: Milepost 178-179

 In May 2024, my family spent close to a week just outside of Ohio City. We rented a lovely Airbnb cabin and thoroughly enjoyed being so far 'out of the way.' It also afforded great time to explore the remains of the C&S/DSP&P line between Parlin and Pitkin. We took several trips out to see what we could find of the roadbed. Thankfully, you can find it largely by looking for the location of today's telephone lines (yesteryear's telegraph lines). 

Much of the right-of-way is on private property, particularly ranches. One of the few spots where this is not the case was near milepost 178. The roadbed there cuts through a forest at this spot. One of my daughters and I set out to see what we could find. It was quite a mess of trees and sticks, but we gave it a shot anyway. Along the way we found what might be railroad tie remains, though, I can't say for sure. 

Either way, it was a fun jaunt of narrow gauge archaeology. 

The yellow line shows where the ROW once was between Ohio City and Pitkin.

This is the segment traversed in the video.

Here is the same segment as above. You can see how the ROW parallels the road at times, sometimes joins the roads at others, and swings away at still others.

Here is a close-up just east of milepost 179. I think the overlay is wrong here. I believe the ROW is now used as part of a driveway towards the top of the screenshot.

This shows the segment where we got out and walked. We parked to the right of the road and then journeyed into the forest at right. In that segment it looked to us that the roadbed went through a long, though not high, cut. We walked from the beginning of the clump of trees at right to the point where the ROW exits that clump of trees as it rejoins the present road.

Bill Raia C&S photo collection

 I found a site with a handful of nice C&S photos from Bill Raia's collection. There is a series of shots of C&S 71 pulling a train largely made up of gondolas through Clear Creek canyon in 1939. There is another of a wrecked engine, likely from Boreas Pass. There are also some excellent shots of former C&S No. 74 during its tenure on the Rio Grande Southern. Photos are available for purchase at Raia's SmugMug page.

Happy Fall on Boreas Pass!

I came across this video below with a tour of C&S No. 9 and Boreas Pass Road and found it interesting. The narrator is off on some details and railroad terminology, but I think you'll enjoy his delight at experiencing the wonders of the line over the pass. The fall colors are also stunning.

Happy Fall!

Tempered good news about repairs to Palisade rock wall

 In an exciting announcement CPR News published the article "After years of repairs and careful restoration, historic Alpine Tunnel Road reopens near Pitkin." The article lauds the multi-year work done to repair the rock wall damaged in 2016 by an avalanche. The damage closed the road for vehicles to the Alpine Tunnel station complex and the west portal for roughly eight years.  During that time, vehicles needed to be parked just a little upgrade of Sherrod Loop. Finally, as the article states, "After years of repairs, a historic road deep in the Rocky Mountains has finally reopened — just in time for fall." 

But the news is a bit tempered. If you read to the end, you come across this sentence: "There still is one hiccup when visiting the historic district: a large boulder that’s a little less than a mile from the historic tunnel. Visitors can park at the intersection of the Alpine Tunnel Road and Williams Road, and walk the rest of the way."

What??? 

There is no other info on the boulder and the circumstance surrounding it. But, essentially, you can at least drive over the old South Park grade eastbound past the former parking spot above Sherrod and, presumably, past the rock wall, but not much farther. 

...sigh

Parlin on the South Park Line: Then and Now (video)

Trains that traveled east toward the Alpine Tunnel left Gunnison and reached Parlin roughly 11 miles later. A few landmarks still exist to help one identify the former DSP&P/C&S grade through the small town. In this video I visited the site of Parlin and point out the location of the right-of-way and the wye. At the end we travel on today's CR-76 which is on the old right-of-way. Toward the end I point out where the ROW leaves the road. 

The west leg of the Parlin wye curved just behind the barn.

The Parlin post office.

Across US-50 is look westbound is the right-of-way leading to Gunnison.

The C&S grade is no CR-76 heading east out of Parlin. Not far from Parlin the right-of-way goes to the right (following the telephone poles) and the road veers to the left.

The Alpine Tunnel Route - RR Magazine June 1941

In June 1941, just over three decades after the abandonment of the Alpine Tunnel, Railroad Magazine published an article titled "The Alpine Tunnel Route." The author, Lewis R. Lathrop, was a D&RG fireman who knew South Park trainmen who ran trains over the "hill" through the famous tunnel and swapped stories with them in a cigar store. In fact, he started work with the Rio Grande just two years after the arrival of the DSP&P into Gunnison.

There are some epic stories in here including one in which a crew of trainmen and snow shovelers managed to turn an engine around with hydraulic jacks. I admit, I still don't understand how they did it. Essentially, a snow blockade kept them from getting through the east portal of Alpine Tunnel, but snow had drifted back behind them. They decided they had a better chance at plowing through the line westward back to Pitkin, but...they needed to turn an engine around with a plow on the front.

While discussing some epic snowbucking skills the South Park railroaders possessed, Lathrop, the D&RG man, admitted that the DSP&P had superior equipment to theirs and that the DSP&P railroaders were better skilled at fighting snow. As evidence he tells of a blockade of Marshall Pass where two South Park "hoggers" opened the Rio Grande line themselves.

Lewis A. Lathrop actually, as the article puts it, "crossed the great divide" a few months before publication of this article. His son Gilbert assisted with its completion.

*A few notes: the story of a stalled circus train being pushed by elephants on the Alpine Tunnel route is likely legend. 

Also, the article concludes by stating the rails over the pass were pulled in 1917. They were actually pulled in 1923 and 1924.