Nostalgia & History > Carlton Tunnel

How long will it take someone else to identify the location of this tunnel and the railroad that used it?

Con

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The Carlton Tunnel was on the Colorado Midland at Hagerman Pass, Colorado. It was called the Busk-Ivanhoe Tunnel when it was built. When Colorado Midland went bankrupt in the late 1890 it was abondoned. It was then converted to a highway tunnel and renamed the Carlton Tunnel in the 1920's until a tunnel collapse closed it during World War II. In the 1960's it was again converted to support a water aqueduct/pipeline.

BNSF6400 Wrote:
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> The Carlton Tunnel was on the Colorado Midland at
> Hagerman Pass, Colorado. It was called the
> Busk-Ivanhoe Tunnel when it was built. When
> Colorado Midland went bankrupt in the late 1890 it
> was abondoned. It was then converted to a highway
> tunnel and renamed the Carlton Tunnel in the
> 1920's until a tunnel collapse closed it during
> World War II. In the 1960's it was again
> converted to support a water aqueduct/pipeline.


I didn't think that it would be long before someone would fill in the "rest of the story" concerning the Carlton tunnel, but it happened even quicker than I thought it would. My dad took this picture. In 1944 he was working as a telegrapher, I think it was maybe 2nd trick in the D&RGW Leadville depot. at the time.

Con

The Colorado Midland actually went bankrupt several times in its existence. In the end though, its death resulted from the USRA diverting all bridge traffic to the D&RG in 1918. The Railroad could not exist on its local traffic, and its last train ran in August, 1918. The rails were removed in 1921 and the roadbed was converted to US highway 24. Cars passed through the Carleton Tunnel (named for the last owner of the Colorado Midland, Cripple Creek Millionare, Albert Carleton) in groups on the half hour, since there was no way to pass inside the tunnel. The tunnel was also equipped with telephones at strategic locations, I believe.