Nostalgia & History > Rio Grande's16 years of change in Glenwood Canyon

A highlight for railroad photographers in Glenwood Canyon in Colorado, east of Glenwood Springs, is 134-foot Shoshone Tunnel No. 2, right next to  Shoshone Dam and lake. The dam is a diversion dam that takes water downhill in tubes to a power generating station two miles farther down the canyon to power turbines before it is returned to its natural course.The dam, constructed in 1909, is the oldest such project in Colorado. A major highway project in 1980 to 1992 created a four-lane highway where previously it was only 2-lane because of the lack of room. The longest highway tunnels to accomplish that feat are the 3900-ft long side-by-side Hanging Lake Tunnels, and they happened to exit their west end out the side of a cliff I had photographed several years earlier. It is interesting to compare the rocks in both views. The tunnel can be accessed from the Hanging Lake Rest Area Exit 125. Here is the difference at that location in 16 years, with vastly different lighting situations.

Photo 1 -  The distinctive drumming of 48 cylinders of nonturbocharged first-generation EMD diesel power reverberates between the steep rock walls on August 10, 1981 as Rio Grande Zephyr No. 17 flows westbound with the winding Colorado River right on schedule, 175 miles west of Denver, CO. This classic view looks down at the Rio Grande Zephyr appearing much like an earlier California Zephyr as it threads its way through this unique location. Not much water is flowing between here and the power generating station today, it is all going through the tubes as the dam is closed. A little construction has started at the highway entrances to the canyon. The eons-old rock face has no idea what the future has in store, and not much time left for the Silver charge that has passed many times before.

Photo 2 - It is 16 years later in this view, on August 22, 1997, the Rio Grande Zephyr has long succumbed to Amtrak, but here is a packed very Rio Grande-looking Ansco Summer Ski Train taking happy passengers round trip to Glenwood Springs from Denver, led this time by GP-60's. The fantasic changes readily apparent on the face of the cliff are the west portals of the twin Hanging Lake Tunnels, and the highway bridge connected to them that leaps over the track, not even believable 16 years earlier. This very long train has about every passenger car the Rio Grande side of Union Pacific could muster. More changes will happen, some of the SP and Rio Grande Tunnel Motors still being used will be painted yellow before all of them disappear altogether, GP60's will be replaced with orange F-40's, yellow locomotives embellished with nose wings will show up, then the entire popular Ski Train and matching F-40's will be abruptly sold, to Canada where these aluminum Ski Train cars came from when the ancient ex-NP coaches were replaced. A time of plenty of water in the Colorado River is indicated, as much is flowing through the dam here, bypassing the power generator tubes which must be running at capacity. I did not have a copy of Photo 1 when I busted my butt to get up the hill here for photo 2 (I got older!), so I could not do an exact same angle, but came as close as I could with a much longer train, the changed highway conditions, and of course a light post was now  in the way, keeping me from moving farther left. === === = === Photos by JLH



Edited 7 time(s). Last edit at 05/27/15 22:51 by highgreengraphics.

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Thanks for sharing.

Photo #1-- Wow!  Photo # 2--  Wow and Wow!!!  Thank you for sharing just awesome shots.  I hadn't seen the downstream side of the dam from that angle before.  Thank you....  IC1038west.

An excellent post.  Learned alot.  Thanks.

Marty Bernard

Appreciate you sharing this, it really adds a historical perspective to an area I just spent time in last April.

Holly hell they ruined it!

Great photo's, even with the concrete jungle gym added!

Kris

Excellent story/thread, Jim! One of the best before & after comparisons I've ever seen.

Lance

Just amazing.

Wasn't that stretch of I-70 pretty much the last part of the interstate highway system built, not to mention, the most expensive in $$$/mile?

I trhink that's all correct, but as soon as I would say that, somebody would come up with an obscure stretch of 2-lane somewhere not finished. Funny how the Interstate system finally got done just in time to start replacing the crumbling infrastructure from the beginning! === === = === JLH

A highway engineering marvel

It is fun to pick out the same rocks in each photo.  Are the small openings facing the river above the rr tunnel natural or mines or just shadows?

I-90 in Wallace ID opened in 1991. 

Saw a few traisn thru the years thru the Canyon, never got any shots. These are some real good ones. Thanks for sharing.  Ben

WAF Wrote:
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> A highway engineering marvel

True.  But that in no way justifies that they did the awful deed.  People complain about graffiti.  I-70 is three dimensional graffiti!

Marty Bernard