West Portal on film in 1965

[Kurt Maechner]

I found a great video of 1965 footage of the west portal of Alpine Tunnel.  I have a post with some interesting screenshots here.  You can also watch the video at the bottom of the post.  My favorite aspect is seeing so much track visible under the west portal snowshed.

Does anyone know if there are any more telegraph poles standing on the western side like the one shown in the video?

Enjoy,
Kurt

[nedsn3]

Nice video, thanks for posting it. I wonder why the park service thought it a good idea to remove all of the rail? Or the timbers? Isn't that now considered "original fabric"? Anyway, too bad they did. Ned

[Kurt Maechner]

I completely agree.  I looked into this a few years ago to see what became of the rails.  I contacted Ray Rossman, of the National Forest Service, who used to be in charge of this area, and he responded.  I’ll need to look through my notes, but if I recall correctly, he said they reused the track for some of the display track by the engine house or station.  

I remember visiting in the 1990s when the timbers and track were all still there.  It was a bit precarious climbing all over them to get to the portal.  I wonder if the forest service moved them as a safety issue.  I’m just guessing.

Still, I’d rather that they had left them in place.  It might have been cool if they could have moved the timbers and allowed us to see actual South Park track still tacked to the ties.
Kurt

[Rick Steele]

I was up there as a kid from a Church Camp in around '65. I remember that there were lots of telegraph poles, insulators and wires still standing alongside the right-of way from the tunnel to about St. Elmo and maybe a bit further east. We hiked up to East Portal from Hancock, something that I have done several times since. Some of us climbed to the top of Altman Pass to look to the west.

This all disappeared when the great Insulator Collecting craze hit. The next time that I went up there in the 1970's everything, poles, wires, insulators were all gone. I am surprised that some of the buildings survived the "barnwood" craze from about the same time. Many in Gilpin County didn't.

I am sure that the remnants of the West Portal Snowshed and the rail that still remained was removed as an "attractive nuisance" on the advice of the liability lawyers.

Now that the Palisades are no longer intact, it is all a moot point anyway.

Rick