Western Railroad Discussion > A scenic shot of a scenic line

Ahhh spring in the rockies! High above Belden the tracks are barely visible, above is the abandoned town of Gilman. Theres way to many things abandoned around here....

-Tyler

Yes I enjoyed them. Thanks for posting!
Roger Beckett

I sure appreciate your photos of the TP line, Tyler. I spent a lot of my growing up years on TP. My dad held the agency at TP for 7 years back in the 1950's. I can vividly remember when that was a vital mainline railroad and was busy. it's especially sad to me and hard to understand that it's really idle now. Of course, its being idle is nearly preferable to the UP's being there now rather than the Rio Grande. UP belongs in Wyoming, Tennessee Pass is Rio Grande country! I can remember riding #1, the wb Royal Gorge, slowly through Eagle River Canyon, which is about 1500 feet below US 24, and looking to see if there were any newly wrecked cars just up from and off the west bound main. Occasionally there were. For a lot of years there was the remains of a nearly new Nash Rambler that a drunk telegrapher from Pando was driving and heading east on 24 from Minturn and had run off the road at nearly the highest point just east of Gilman and rode the rolling tumbling Nash all the way to the bottom. He survived this experience, although he had broken his neck. My dad was forever grateful that he had decided to drive himself to Minturn for some division union meeting or function for ORT employees rather than to accept an offer for a ride from the fellow who later got drunk and had the wreck. The highway patrol said that if that guy hadn't been drunk, rhat he would have been killed for sure. This was in about 1954. ORT stands for: Order of Railroad Telegraphers.

Con Sweet

Another memory just came to mind. While riding in the dome through Eagle Canyon, it always fascinated me when we passed Belden. If there weren't any boxcars to block our view, we could look into the adit of the Gilman mine at Belden. There were a string of lights going 'way back in that dark darkness. Mining has always fascinated me and still does. Another time in the dome, there were a few old maid types who were schoolteachers from somewhere back east and they were absolutely amazed by the white water in the Eagle River. They had come to the conclusion that water was swimming back over the top of the main body of water and headed back upstream. They figured that this was unique to just this "little river". I reckon that they had never seen rapids before.


Con

Some years back I had the privilege of exploring TP. I had no idea then what I was really looking at back then nor that the line would fall silent shortly after.

We were vacationing in Vail for a week for the first time (I'm from Phoenix). About 3 days into our stay, while we were biking around town, I swore I heard a train whistle in the distance. But I figured, naaww, no tracks around here!

The next day I headed west of Vail to get a sense of the lay of the land when I discovered, to my surprise, tracks slipping under the freeway. I made my way to the road along the tracks and drove into Minturn to see what I could see. I enjoyed the town's smallness. And the SP yard had quite a lot of action going on that day. What a neat place.

The TP only got better as I headed south, up the mountain edge, and past Gilman. I just had to pull over and survey the tracks way below, even if that meant "on the edge" driving. By the time I reached the highway bridge over the line at Redcliff I was in heaven. I went as far as the summit that day, just taking it all in.

I drove that part of the line once again the next year. Needless to say, I was shocked to return the year after that to see the line fallen into disuse. I was just getting to know it. Sigh.

Thomas

Nice shots - I especially liked the memorial photo - I never knew it was there, and I am sure it must have been there when there were still trains running. In the very last year of operation, UP finished what SP started, and relaid a lot of the curves up there with brand-new welded rail. It didn't seem to make sense, but a lot of the curves were in such bad shape that it was risky to run even one more train over them, who knows they may have saved a lot of money averting another tragedy in the short remaining time they ran trains after the curves were relaid. Check those curves - there should be very little if any wear on the rail heads. - - - - - - - - - - - JLH

Thanks for sharing.