Re: Alpine Tunnel Glass

Posted by South Park on Oct 10, 2017; 4:11am
URL: http://c-sng-discussion-forum.254.s1.nabble.com/Alpine-Tunnel-Glass-tp9540p9679.html

  The D&RG kept plenty of 2-8-0's and ten-wheelers on the roster
for lighter branch line duty well past the bringing on of their modern
steamer fleet.  They could have easily run those anywhere the C&S
locos numbered below 74 ran.  Was there a reason to ?  I have never
heard of the D&RG using C&S rails from Nathrop to Pitkin, but that
is not to say they never did.  There is a great story of the C&S Gunnison
run getting trapped on the west side of the divide by snow and bucking
the jammed Marshall Pass line for the D&RG, freeing up stuck trains
as they went, to get back to C&S rails at Buena Vista.  If memory serves
those C&S guys were gone from Como for FORTY DAYS !!!  Something
to think about next time anyone thinks they are having a rough time at
work.  

  As I understand it, the Joint Use Agreement of 1880 put some D&RG
trains on the Alpine Pass line, but since the D&RG line to Gunnison was
operational before the Alpine Tunnel was bored through, how far did they
venture up toward Hancock before the Joint Use Agreement was nixed ?

  This early history on that part of the line is not well documented, but
I suspect somewhere in the historical fog, someone from the C&S sourced
a barrel or ten of insulators from the D&RG, or perhaps it was a contractor
doing tunnel work ?  ... or perhaps they sourced from the UP ???  Just odd
that this is the only place those were found on the South Park's rather extensive
run of wire.