Western Railroad Discussion > TP

Here's me keeping busy at home.

Sat. afternoon I saw a good chance for a few minutes of last second daylight storm light so left work for 5 mins with my camera. On the right is the new Westin Resort development, you can also see the bottom of the new Gondola that will connect Avon with Beaver Creek. This development is the reason the Town of Avon fought tooth and nail with UP over a proposed grade crossing they wanted to build. Avon eventually won so at some point in the near future there should be a new grade crossing in this photo. Avon, CO.

Went on a rain soaked hike today. These are the intermediates between Belden and Pando, view looking up the 3%. Red Cliff, CO is still looking as good as ever, just add some polish to the rails and we're good to go. There is suprisingly little snow left, spring has come early on the Pass.

TME

If "if'n and a wishin" were to be permitted here, the best way for those rails to be getting polished on TP, would be if the L131's, M63's, M64's, along with F units and SD7's were the ones doing the polishing. Of course I reckon that there ain't anything wrong with having SD40T-2's and GP40's thrown into the mix for good measure!
Thanks for these images Tyler, I've been wishing that somebody would post pictures of TP, even without trains, I still like Tennessee Pass!

I reckon that progress is what some claim that it is, but I sure hate seeing all of the developement that's going on at Avon and the rest of Colorado. I remember that country when the population was relatively sparse and new developement was almost nonexistent. I really wish that folks from Texas, California, and elsewhere could be content to just visit Colorado, and leave nothing behind except for their footprints and their "disposable income" visitor's dollars! I mean, prople can stay home and see lots of buildings, there are lots and lots of buildings and developements all over Texas and California, and etc., why do people think that they need to spoil Colorado with buildings?

I'd better cut off on this ranting, it just raises my blood pressure, and not much else. I still maintain that the Colorado of my youth was more "colorful" and scenic, than the Colorado of today with all of its developement pollution.

Con

eatontm Wrote:
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<snip>
> This development
> is the reason the Town of Avon fought tooth and
> nail with UP over a proposed grade crossing they
> wanted to build. Avon eventually won so at some
> point in the near future there should be a new
> grade crossing in this photo. Avon, CO.
<snip>

Tyler-
I forget, is the grade crossing going to split the siding? If so, is it near enough to one end of the siding so that WHEN they start running trains again, they can use the siding with room for trains to clear the crossing while between switches? How long is that siding?
Thanks,
-Wes
p.s. Nice pics!

Avon is 8,350ft, a busy grade crossing already exists about 200 yards from the west switch, this new crossing will almost certainly be about right in the middle of the siding. It is the first siding west of Minturn, at least Minturn can hold quite a few trains.

TME

If the town of Avon wants another crossing so bad, then why don't they get the developers of this mega-project to pony up the dollars for a grade separation, instead of a crossing at grade? A grade separation would solve the problem of unimpeded access to their development, and the railroad would not have to worry about blocked crossings, possible grade crossing collisions, etc., not to mention a very useful long siding rendered virtually useless by being cut in half by a grade crossing that cannot be occupied more than eight or ten minutes?

Hey,
Last two weeks or so made a trip from Salida to Steamboat Springs(actually Milner) in conjunction with work. Followed the TP Line west from Salida up and over TP and on into Avon and Eagle. At Wolcott went north on Co 131 thru Bond, Yampa/Toponas and Phippsburg. The TP line needs some work. At Red Cliff when one gets the opportunity to view the trks btwn there and Minturn you'll notice some avalanche remnants and a few large rocks on the tracks. Probably be able to shove most of it out of the way with a spreader. At the East side of Malta is a tractor stuck on the tracks.Might be a little more difficult for the spreader.Most of the track appears to be intact from Parkdale west with just a few minor areas needing help. Some weed spraying and ballast work for sure needs to be done. Don't know how much UP would be willing to invest tho. Just my thoughts. Ben

The ironic thing is, the road through Avon used to cross the tracks probably a few hundred yards east of where the planned new crossing will be put in. This is from the TOA website:

"In 1992, the Town of Avon, CO was faced with a problem. The railroad track ran smack across the middle of the main thoroughfare, Avon Road. With about 25 trains passing through a day, traffic would back up and cause gridlock as everyone waited for the train to pass.

Avon officials knew there had to be a better way. And there was: they dug about 20 feet under the existing road to create a new one. But, the new road had to cross over the Eagle River. With the help of 7 funding partners, Avon built a 50 yd., four-lane bridge to do the job."

With the new grade crossing, access to this new resort as well as a transportation hub will all once again be forced to cross at an at grade level crossing again. Since they were so proud of their earlier feat in eliminating a busy grade crossing, it's quite amazing to believe they have already forgotten the past and will once again create the very problem they so desperately needed to fix in the 90's.

So why not create grade seperation? Avon and developers are being cheap, they are working with very limited land resources and don't want to allot the space for such a project, plus trains have stopped running almost 10 years ago, there is no way they will ever come back..... If only they knew about rail capacity and exactly what it takes to get western slope coal to eastern destinations and what a fine line the Moffat tunnel and Denver are riding trying to efficiently move it all. The complaining from the Vail Valley will be unlike anything anyone has ever seen when the day comes. I just can not wait.

TME

If wishes were horses, beggers would ride.... Enjoy!

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If the UP stuck with the Pass, this would have still been going on

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I don't like drooling but a BN 60M at Mitchell will do that to me.

TME

And a woman engineer at the controls too.