Steam & Excursion > Three Foot Thursday (Alpine Tunnel)

Last summer my wife and I drove to the west portal of Alpine Tunnel on the old Denver, South Park, & Pacific grade near Pitkin, CO. For a couple of sea-level flatlanders like us it was quite an adventure.

The full trip report is here: http://grande.smittyshouse.net/2010-rge-day6.html

If you've never made this trek, I highly recommend it. The views are spectacular, the engineering is incredible, and the sense of history is palpable.

Photo 1) Heading up the grade, railroad east, at Tunnel Gulch Tank. Elevation 10,850'.

Photo 2) The restored track at Sherrod Loop. Elevation 10,925'.

Photo 3) Nearing the Palisades, still heading up.

Jason Rose
Spring, TX
Rio Grande Explorations

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Photo 4) The restored Depot & Western Union office.

Photo 5) Looking east towards the tunnel from the Depot.

Photo 6) Looking west towards the yard and Depot.

Jason Rose
Spring, TX
Rio Grande Explorations

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Photo 7) Looking east towards the tunnel from the turntable pit.

Photo 8) Yours truly at the buried west portal. Elevation 11,500'.

Photo 9) Heading back down, railroad west, towards the Palisades.

Jason Rose
Spring, TX
Rio Grande Explorations



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/21/11 08:13 by Jason-Rose.

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I don't know the history of this line. Did the tunnel collapse by itself, or did the Forest Service blow it up to make it safer for hikers?

I think it was to keep it safe FROM hikers....

I believe it was allowed to collapse on it's own to keep people out. And, I think "collapse" may be the wrong word. I read somewhere recently that loose rock has buried the portal, but that it's still intact.

I should have also mentioned that our trip up there coincided with the 100 year anniversary of the last train to transit the tunnel.

Jason Rose
Spring, TX
Rio Grande Explorations

The company's main line was 3 ft (914 mm) gauge and went from Union Station in Denver up the valley of the South Platte River to the town of South Platte, then followed the North Fork of the South Platte through Buffalo Creek and Bailey. West of Bailey the route along North Fork and through the north end of the Tarryall Mountains essentially followed the route of present-day U.S. Highway 285 to Como, where it branched northward. From Como the main line transvered South Park to Garo, where a spur went northward to Fairplay and Alma. The main line continued south over Trout Creek Pass. On the western side of the pass, a small spur of the main connected to Buena Vista, then traversed the southern end of the Sawatch Range through the Alpine Tunnel to Pitkin and Gunnison. The distance along the main line from Denver to Gunnison was approximately 208 miles (335 km).

A principal branch of the main line north from Como went over Boreas Pass to Breckenridge, Dillon, Keystone, Frisco and Climax. This branch terminated at Leadville.

Alpine Tunnel History

The Alpine Tunnel was "holed through" on July 26, 1881. Location of the tunnel portals and establishing a center line of the bore were completed in December 1879. Construction of the Alpine Tunnel took place between 1880-1881, by Cummings & Co. Construction company. This was the highest and most expensive tunnel built up until that time. It exceeds two miles (3 km) above sea level, with its highest point at 11,523.7 feet (3,512.4 m). It is 500 feet (150 m) under Altman Pass, later to be named Alpine Pass to prevent confusion, with a 1,825-foot (556 m) bore. It took 18 months to complete, with most of the construction done during the winter months. The tunnel only had a thirty year life span, with the last locomotive passing through the tunnel on November 10, 1910.

The line exited the west portal of the Alpine Tunnel, to Alpine Tunnel Station, the highest railroad station in the United States. There also was a turntable, water tank, and a two-story frame boarding house that replaced the stone boarding house and engine house, which burned down in 1906. Parlin, located at milepost 189.78 is where the tracks of the Denver, South Park and Pacific and the Denver and Rio Grande joined up and ran along each other to Gunnison. The land for the track was given to the railroad by local dairy rancher John Parlin around 1877, with the condition that the railroad would build a depot, and stop for at least five minutes so passengers could buy milk. The main line reached Gunnison the following year in 1882.

The railroad went into receivership on in May 1888. On July 17, 1889, the company was sold at foreclosure proceedings to the Denver, Leadville and Gunnison Railway, a new railroad which was formed to operate the DSP&P lines. The successor company went into receivership on August 4, 1894. The Colorado and Southern, charted in 1898, took over the former DSP&P lines in January 1899. The Colorado and Southern started dismantling in 1910 with the closure of the Alpine Tunnel. (Wikipedia)



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 04/21/11 08:19 by cozephyr.

Jason, I keep hearing about and seeing the restoration projects up there. Are they restoring the railroad for use? It seems like a lot of trouble to go to rebuilding all that shop area, turntables, water tanks, depots etc. and not put a railroad up there. Especially way up there in the middle of nowhere.

I believe the restoration work is solely to preserve and display what was once the highest railroad depot/yard in North America.

The difficulties and costs of operating and maintaining a railroad up there will surely keep it from ever happening again. And, even if you could do it, getting people up there and maintaining facilities for them would be a serious hurdle, both logistically and financially.

But, this is just my opinion. Others may know more about the eventual intentions of the Forest Service.

Jason Rose
Spring, TX
Rio Grande Explorations



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/21/11 09:35 by Jason-Rose.

Jason-Rose Wrote:
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> I believe it was allowed to collapse on it's own
> to keep people out. And, I think "collapse" may be
> the wrong word. I read somewhere recently that
> loose rock has buried the portal, but that it's
> still intact.

Jason's right - it's mostly loose rock that's come down over the tunnel face. You could still pick out the topmost portal stones when I was there about five years ago, and it was at the right height off the ground to be still in place. The last time anybody went inside, to my knowledge, was back in the 1970s. I can't remember the individuals, but there are photos from the expedition floating around. Suffice to say that it hasn't fared well. There are large collapses, particularly towards the east end if I remember correctly. Otherwise, the rails, ties, and redwood timbering are still in place, with occasional small failures in the side cribbing or ceiling.

It's wonderful to see this restoration work ! It's a SERIOUS labor of love ! It's certainly out of the way :)

I was in the tunnel in 1967 from the west portal. You had to drop down a hole, squeese under the top of the stone arch and then slide down a pile of dirt to track level which was covered by about 2 feet of real clear but real cold water. The track was in place. As you walked farther along the track the water got less and less deep until the rails and ties were high and dry. There was water draining on each side of the roadbed next to the side walls. In places the mountain had broken through the redwood timbers on one side or the other. The timbers were black with soot but there was also a thick white mold-like stuff on the timbers in places. I only remember one place where the roof had caved in but climbing over the rock pile revealed an intact tunnel with rails in place on the other side. The trip ended where the second roof cave in completely blocked the tunnel. With flashlight turned off the blackness was total. What seemed like 15 minutes in the tunnel turned out to be over two hours. An old man in Pitkin told us he helped take up the rails from the west portal down to Quartz (I think) in 1923. The inside of the tunnel is something you don't forget 40+ years later. We were pretty stupid to go in there with only a couple of flashlights but sometimes stupid + lucky = chance of a lifetime you live to tell about.

Great thread all you contributors!
Paul

mt-king Wrote:
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> I was in the tunnel in 1967 from the west portal.
> You had to drop down a hole, squeese under the top
> of the stone arch and then slide down a pile of
> dirt to track level which was covered by about 2
> feet of real clear but real cold water. The track
> was in place. As you walked farther along the
> track the water got less and less deep until the
> rails and ties were high and dry. There was water
> draining on each side of the roadbed next to the
> side walls. In places the mountain had broken
> through the redwood timbers on one side or the
> other. The timbers were black with soot but there
> was also a thick white mold-like stuff on the
> timbers in places. I only remember one place
> where the roof had caved in but climbing over the
> rock pile revealed an intact tunnel with rails in
> place on the other side. The trip ended where the
> second roof cave in completely blocked the tunnel.
> With flashlight turned off the blackness was
> total. What seemed like 15 minutes in the tunnel
> turned out to be over two hours. An old man in
> Pitkin told us he helped take up the rails from
> the west portal down to Quartz (I think) in 1923.
> The inside of the tunnel is something you don't
> forget 40+ years later. We were pretty stupid to
> go in there with only a couple of flashlights but
> sometimes stupid + lucky = chance of a lifetime
> you live to tell about.

I was in the tunnel in 1974 and the decription above pretty much describes what I experienced. Those 12"x12" redwood timbers were amazing. Though pressure of the tunnel walls was splintering some of them at their bottoms, they still were holding the tunnel roof pretty well. When I took my pocket knife and cut into one of the timbers, the wood was still fresh and red less than a half-inch from the surface--no rot at all. Going in there was an experience that I won't ever forget, but won't ever repeat--though I've been underground in operating coal mines numerous times since.

Ditto to Paul's note! And I was determined to stay silent tonight..

Great post, Jason, pictures 2 and 4 through 7 are great from a railroading perspective. cozephyr, very good history, even if I don't know the geography out there. Thanks to all for posting. - Jerry


grandroad Wrote:
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> Great thread all you contributors!
> Paul

Thanks for posting this great series.

Back in 1982, I was living in the Denver area, and each fall a friend would come out from Georgia, and we'd go off into the hills camping. That year, we stayed at Middle Quartz campground down on the canyon floor. After breakfast, we decided to hike up to the tunnel, which turned out to be about a 15 mile round trip, first going up the hillside to the old right of way, then following it up around to the tunnel. Nothing short of spectacular. And coming back down, after passing Woodstock, we started following the old toll road that predated the railroad. We were so tired, sore and blistered, that I could barely raise that beer to my lips! But one of life's great adventures!

Gosh. That was 30 years ago?

Lee Hower - Sacramento