Nostalgia & History > Tennessee Pass - Last Days

While recently doing some cleaning and organizing, I stumbled upon three slides that mus have fallen out of a box while moving years ago. The three slides were from a trip to Tennessee Pass, CO during the last few weeks of operation. While I was still in High School, I managed to talk my dad into taking me out there for one last chance of seeing the action. This trip has always been a favorite of mine because I can still remember discovering how amazing the line was while at the same time having a great camping trip with my dad (who passed away last year). Anyway I had previously posted many pictures from this trip, but obviously these slides were missing. So here are the last few frames;

(Sorry about my poor quality slide scanner)

Nate
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Here's a link to previous pictures from this trip:
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,1784935,1784957#msg-1784957

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,1786195,1786195#msg-1786195
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1. An eastbound coal load grinding uphill approaching Pando. Two C&NW units are sandwiching two WC SD45's.

2. Westbound helpers passing through Pando Tunnel while returning downhill to Minturn.

3. After the closure of Tennessee Pass, the Malta Local continued to run from Pueblo to Malta once each week. I returned to the line later that winter to chase the local making a round trip. Here's the westbound train chasing a herd of deer along the Arkansas River. If memory serves me correctly, I believe that this is just east of Cotopaxi (although I could be totally wrong).

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Nice series Nate, thanks for sharing. In that last shot, looks like if there's a meet around the bend, it's fresh venison tonight.

Kent in Carmel Valley

Nice Shots. That coal load with the CNW and WC Power looks like a train I shot in Minturn and the Mitchell curves in August 1997. What # is that CNW unit??

KansasRailHead Wrote: What # is that
> CNW unit??

Looks like #8667 to me.

I can't quite make out the number of the CNW unit. However, this was in August of '97. I didn't really keep good notes of dates or engine numbers back then.

Were you hanging around Minturn for a while? A few of us spent the whole week there.

Nate

Posted from iPhone

Yes i was there for a couple days I think It was the the weekend before UP shut it down. I just looked at my slide it was CNW 8667 East. I watched the crew cut in the Helpers. I didn't keep good records either in those days But I know it was August 97

Hmm... I wonder if we met then. I remember another father and son from New Jersey, driving a rented jeep. There were also a few other guys there throughout the week. We were all camping out in Minturn.

My father and I were in a big white Ford pick up with a camper shell.

Posted from iPhone

As a follow-on (in 2015) to a 3 year-old thread regarding UP's last operations in August '97...

That first photo of SP 187 AC4400 exiting the rock tunnel - research of another site, a virtual discerning database of locomotives, shows faded SP 187, one of the very few remaining unpatched SP units working Dalton, Georgia as late as August of last year.

Indeed at least parts of the line do look amazingly well-'preserved' even after all these years.

-Paul