History revealed

My last post was about a hole in history regarding Tennessee Pass's narrow gauge alignment, for me anyhow.  Thanks to the endless depth of knowledge of the D&RGW Yahoo Group, resources and information were produced and I now have a much clearer vision of history between Malta and Minturn.


So lets review:
Ormes Tracking Ghost Railroads in Colorado depicts a map with the differing alignment between Crane Park and Mitchell.  For this he is correct, however his depiction of the alignment at Crane Park does not jive with satellite imagery for where the original NG alignment was, or even where it was planned.
The 1882/3 D&RG survey map shows a loop as a preliminary line loosely where Ormes puts his, but again this was not the alignment built.
From there on to Mitchell Ormes has it right.

LeMassena indicates the alignment changes were between Keeldar and Pando.  Which is accurate, to a point.  At Keeldar the only evidence I see is a straightening of a short segment of the ROW following the creek, with the major changes starting in Crane Park.

Neither account for the alignment changes between Pando and Red Cliff though.




Between Keeldar and Crane Park it appears the D&RG planned a tunnel or large cut, but decided otherwise.  The NG alignment is the SG alignment.

Here is the Crane Park to TennPass alignment of the 1883 survey map vs. Google Earth.  Ormes closely depicts the preliminary line (not overlayed, his depiction is somewhere between the two curve/loops)

Over the pass the D&RG surveyed a different line and built elsewhere as well.

Through Eagle Park to Pando is interesting.  The W H Jackson photo of Mount of the Holy Cross shows the original alignment; that's already been covered.  But no photo evidence has been sourced of the west end of Camp Hale and Pando area for the original NG alignment.  Doing the best I could with the overlays created an issue with the north end of Pando.  Either the survey map is generous with the length of the alignment in that area or I goofed somehow. But to get the Google Earth details to fit the survey map north Pando with the same scaling of the areas before and after Pando would have originally put the NG alignment HIGH on the hillside.  So the overlay shows a Google Earth 'studder' in the image... it is what it is.
As you can see though, Camp Hale did its best to destroy the NG alignment once it turned north.

Between Pando and Red Cliff there is evidence of the alignment changes.  What is not clear is if the original narrow gauge was standard gauged, then later realigned, or if the realignments occurred at the time of the SG'ing.  Because of how the two alignments come together at sections, and it appears the standard gauge is on a higher elevation in sections (especially entering Red Cliff), I would say it was a all-in-one change.
There is nothing interesting between Pando and Red Cliff to show Google Earth pictures of, and I have yet to find historic photos along that section, so I'll move on to Red Cliff.


Here is a shot (WHJ 10166) of Red Cliff between 1882 and 1900 with no signs of D&RG yet.  Because of the lack of a railroad this would put the picture 1880-1881.

It was mentioned that a NG roundhouse existed at Red Cliff and history seems to leave that information out.  It is captured in at least two pictures though.  Erdlens 1885 photo, and W H Jacksons photo from the same vantage point around the same time.   The copy of the Erdlen photo I've already shown in the previous blog is way too grainy to make out the roundhouse, depot, or water tower but the WHJ photo is very clear.  There is also an non-credited photo from the same location after the standard gauging that shows all of them gone.  On Google Earth the foundation for the water tower can still be seen, but the depot and roundhouse locations are not identifiable.

I created a gif of the WHJ and non-credited photo's to show the changes that took place.  The new SG looks like it built on top of the roundhouse with the depot being completely removed and just the water tower foundation left.  The SG alignment appears to enter at a much higher elevation as well.

The requirement for the roundhouse is pretty evident.  When this was just a branchline north from Malta the D&RG needed some place to turn the steam engines, but once the line was extended to Minturn and the roundhouse was built there Red Cliff lost that requirement.


Heading further west towards Minturn the original NG alignment was on the north side of Eagle River through to the end of the canyon.  West of Red Cliff the current Belden Siding was the original main line, and in 1907 a second standard gauge main line was built from Minturn to Red Cliff (info from drgw.net) which would be the current main line on the south side of Eagle River.

Compare the Google Earth view of the area to the next picture of the dual mainlines.

Picture of bridge in the low left center of the Google image.  Note the chute in the background for one of the many mines through the canyon.  The original NG mainline is the one on the right.

This arrangement lasted until 1958 (info from drgw.net) when the D&RGW converted this section to CTC control and converted the original mainline into passing sidings between Minturn and Pando (or Deen Tunnel).  Belden siding then and now exists from just west of Eagle Mine to the mouth of the canyon at the west end of Red Cliff.