A Day On Tennessee Pass
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- Опубликовано: 26 авг 2013
- Part of my marathon trip to the West in 1996. Starting in Canon City, we follow an empty hopper train west, passing opposing traffic and catching up to a mixed freight ahead. The stack flaming when the train pulls out of the tunnel is due to oxygen starvation at the high altitude.
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Wife and I tent camped years ago near 10th Mountain Div. monument at Tennessee Pass. At night, as throbbing locomotives using loud horns announced their coming to north tunnel entrance, coyotes from multiple packs would answer back in song. It was a memorable experience to hear interaction between powerful horns and the dogs' voices.
It's sad that this line shut down because Union Pacific preferred the Moffat line over Tennessee pass to haul freight. I wish they had just kept both open after UP bought our SP.
I may be wrong but I think the reason this line got closed was because of multiple derailments. If it does ever get reopened, whoever is using it may reduce the track speed to 10mph in certain parts, that's what CORP did to the old SP Siskiyou Sub here in Oregon after they took it over in 1994!
Never did get to do the Tennessee Pass and I regret it very much. Spectacular stuff around the 6 minute mark. Those engines must have been gagging for breath in that tunnel. Spectacular bit of Railway.
locomotives and crews alike. I'm surprised Rio Grande never got into cab-forwards during the days of steam, since both of their key mainlines had many long tunnels.
I'm big fans of GE AC4400 and beautiful trainspotting scenery. I guess Tennessee Pass would have been my ideal trainspotting place
awesome , awesome scenery... this video had to be an emotional high for you to see and capture. Thank you for sharing. You have an outstanding channel.
Awesome. I think this is the only video I've seen from this place and time. Excellent. I'm glad you put it up.
I heard that there are 2 companies that are trying to gain control of the Abandoned line so that they can restore the line. One is called Colorado Pacific and the other Rio Grande Pacific. Colorado pacific wants to use the line to export grain while the Rio Grande Pacific wants to use it to carry Natural gas, as of recently, Colorado Pacific as of recently wants operate passenger service on the line.(Siting from a recent news source from Trains Magazine) Maybe the Tennessee pass line will reopen sometime again in the future.
Ah to be there when that all was going on .. cant wait to look at more of you vids .. nice job
Awesome video! Beautiful scenery. Thanks for posting.
Thanks airing the Outstanding vid.Bliss
00:40 Tunnel motors.....yay!
Beautiful belching exhaust at the 6 minute mark.
It's just really sad that UP won't do anything with this line! I recently drove US 24 from Buena Vista to I-70, and then west to Dotsero, and I was getting depressed seeing that line the way it is now. All the crossing and block signals are still there waiting for a train to pass by. If they don't want to use it again, fine. But either officially abandon it and pull up the rails, maybe the county or state can turn it into a bike route, or try to sell it to a private company so they can turn it into an excursion line. If La Veta Pass can do well with an excursion line, this one shouldn't have any trouble.
It's going on 20 years since most of this line has seen any sort of train activity. It's time UP does something...before we enthusiasts (I'm not saying "foamer") get even more depressed!
Yes, it's been 20 years and yes, it would be so much better if UP either reactivated it or dealt it, but I much favor the second option for an excursion line. Various parties along the route are interested in it, including Salida. UP shouldn't abandon it unless all other options are exhausted. I appreciate your mental state, but there are worse things than dormancy.
BNSF wants this line as well to UP that's a BIG NO NO
UP’s ownership of the Tennessee Pass reminds me of a little kid with a bunch of toys. They don’t want to play with this “toy” (Tennessee Pass) anymore, so it is sitting there idle and untouched, but when another kid (Colorado Pacific or BNSF) wants to play with it because UP isn’t, UP wants to say, “NO! YOU CAN’T HAVE IT!! ITS MINE!”
There is HOPE!!! Nov. 2019; Colorado Pacific Railroad is offering Union Pacific $10 million for 170 miles of its Tennessee Pass Line, running from Parkdale near the Royal Gorge through the lower Vail Valley to Dotsero. As of Dec 2019 the only west side recent Tennessee Pass rail line traffic is a train that runs to the American Gypsum wallboard manufacturing plant in Gypsum. The east side track above Parkdale over the pass to Dotsero is still owned by the UP. The track operated by Rock and Rail between Parkdale and Cañon City is still owned by the UP, while the track between Pueblo and Cañon City was purchased from the UP by Rock and Rail (RRRR). The tourist line Cañon City and Royal Gorge Railroad operates on Rock and Rail short line section between Parkdale and Cañon City the RRRR's track is a subsidiary of Martin Marietta Materials.
What would it be used for?
@@seka62 info:{ www.codot.gov/about/transportation-commission/documents/2018-agendas-and-supporting-documents/july-2018/link-files/02-b2-sfprp-draft-final-appendices-july-2018-tc.pdf } ( kiowacountyindependent.com/news/1700-colorado-pacific-makes-offer-to-buy-union-pacific-s-tennessee-pass-railroad-line ) . If Colorado Pacific Railroad get the RR line they want to ship Colorado/ Kansas Winter Wheat to the West Cost for shipment. " Since Stefan Soloviev began what became a long, arduous and complicated battle to buy the Towner Line from V&S Railway and, in so doing, save it from being salvaged and the railroad vanishing from Kiowa County and counties to the west forever, he’s been clear about one of his primary goals: to create an infrastructure that would ultimately provide farmers in this region with the opportunity to receive better prices for their grain. As he has stated on several different occasions, part of his motivation is, of course, to make a profit. But Soloviev, who’s had a presence in this region for a number of years, has seen first-hand the myriad of challenges facing regional farmers on an ongoing basis, and it’s his desire to see the farmers in eastern Colorado and western Kansas provided with much needed market alternatives that would be of benefit to them, their operations and their families.
The first step toward that goal was accomplished when Soloviev’s Colorado Pacific Railroad successfully purchased the Towner Line from V&S in 2018.
I was on that bridge this past summer at 11:27! At first I couldn't tell if it was Tennesee Pass tracks or LC&S tracks! It would be cool if someone ran excursion trains or luxury trains over this line!
Incredible at the 6:00 to 7:00 minute mark! Pure SP power at work.
As much as I--and many other rail enthusiasts--want to see Union Pacific reopen this scenic line, I fear it may be doomed to the same fate that has befallen Norfolk Southern's Saluda Grade route. Mothballing Tennessee Pass was a real travesty. If nothing else, UP could reopen it as a secondary route in the event that Moffat Tunnel needs to be closed for maintenance. Plus, it'd make for one helluva scenic detour for a rerouted California Zephyr.
This line technically isn't abandoned it's out of service which means UP can reopen it anytime they choose, provided they make the repairs. The main reason they most likely won't is because its expensive and dangerous to operate on. They could reopen to get traffic off of the Moffat line but even that's a stretch because they're not going to do anything with Tennessee pass unless it's absolutely, vitally, no other options, necessary.
You might be asking why UP doesn't sell it, well to sell it would potentially give their competitor BNSF a strategic advantage over them which is why they're playing hardball over a piece of infrastructure they aren't using and even at one point a short line wanted the Tennessee pass but that deal fell through. It's sad that Tennessee pass isn't used any more but railroads don't care about historical significance, only money!
Alot of AC power, they must have loved this.
Wasn't Under Siege 2: Dark Territory filmed along this route?
parts of that film were shot on Tennessee Pass between Minturn and the summit. Other scenes were shot on the Moffat line between Big Ten and Bond.
6:26 FIRE!!
I never realized how fast trains went up and down Bighorn Sheep Canyon.
Spectacular flameage @6:05 or so!
does the altitude have any effect on the power out put of the power unit on a train? in all the videos that I have watch on train come out of tunnels this is the first on where I saw flames come out of the exhaust stacks of a train; that was weird. Thanks for an outstanding video.
Yes, altitude does affect locos but it is more pronounced on non turbocharged units. The flaming stacks in this video are a combination of altitude and oxygen starvation from the long tunnel.
+fmnut Thanks you very much for the info
Do you have the date when all this was taken? Great stuff BTW:}
John Shine June 1996
There is no longer any trains on Tennessee pass anymore its very sad
There’s hope as of early November of 2019.
@@ethanmorel2746 They just cut a deal in late December
@@tcp3059 I heard. Probably three days ago.
The stupid transportation board disallowed it on the basis of them not wanting Colorado Pacific to haul hazmat even though they stated Tennessee pass would only be used for AG loads!
Dont put it off if get a chance take it. I was royal gorge in 1997 didnt want to wait on a train pic of SP . Said i would get one next time we are here. wish i would have waited now