Western Railroad Discussion > Sinkhole over abandoned Tennessee Pass D&RGW tunnel in 2012

Found this:

http://www.denverpost.com/2012/07/10/u-s-24-sinkhole-near-leadville-determined-to-be-old-railroad-tunnel/

First two paragraphs from July 10, 2012 Denver Post story:

A giant sinkhole that closed a stretch of U.S. 24 north of Leadville on Monday has been determined to be a century-old railroad tunnel that collapsed decades ago and was exposed when the soil thawed.

A variety of engineers, maintenance supervisors and geological experts examined the sinkhole and now estimate its depth to be about 100 feet, according to a Colorado Department of Transportation news release. Much of the soil deep in the collapsed tunnel was still frozen until recently; when it thawed, the hole was exposed.


* JB *



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/26/17 07:14 by prr4828.

Not quite. I was able to pin point the exact location of the sink hole from the photos and info. It's where Hwy 24 cross the north end of the original DRGW tunnel under Tennessee Pass. It doesn't affect the current DRGW tunnel that has track.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

Article's actually from 2012. Up says the tunnel has been abandoned since the 1950's. Obviously TP was running since then, so where is this tunnel?

the older , north or east bore, iirc tunnel for the std gauge, didn't read the article lately..

The sink hole referenced in 2012 news article was caused by the old railroad tunnel. The last Denver & Rio Grande Western RR/Union Pacific RR Tennessee Pass tunnel is in good shape and was not affected by the sink hole.

Image taken August 19, 2016. Tennessee Pass line rail banked since August 1997.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/26/17 02:51 by cozephyr.

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BigDave Wrote:
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> Article's actually from 2012. Up says the tunnel
> has been abandoned since the 1950's. Obviously TP
> was running since then, so where is this tunnel?

No wonder I didn't find any matches when I was searching TO posts in July 2017 ... DUH! :-)

* JB *

Thanks to cozephyr for the shot of the new tunnel. The old tunnel is to the right about 100-150 feet. It was timber lined and long time abandonded. Rumors have come to light many times over the years, largely implying that a 3600 series 2-8-8-2 was inside, sometimes with a second steam engine. There is no support for these rumors.

Rob

Wonder how long the UP plans to leave the line unused before formally abandoning it and removing all of the rails? Is the signal system still there or was it removed following closure? Does anyone know what size rail is generally on the line and how much of it is welded?

Northern Wrote:
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> Wonder how long the UP plans to leave the line
> unused before formally abandoning it and removing
> all of the rails? Is the signal system still
> there or was it removed following closure? Does
> anyone know what size rail is generally on the
> line and how much of it is welded?

I've wondered the same thing. No one else is going to be interested in reopening that line, so UP doesn't exactly have much to loose to rip it up. As for rail, most of it is welded rail, and DRGW generally used 136lb welded rail.

Um, think BNSF would take it first. Has been mentioned here before.