America's Highest, Steepest Mainline Railroad
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 14 ก.พ. 2024
- This was the highest and one of the steepest busy Mainline Railroads at the time in the US with 3% grades and 40,000 HP trains. With 20 trains a day see plenty of manifests, coal, taconite and others. Colorful pool power, manned helpers and great train pacing plus all the heavy, intense action in a beautiful mountain setting. Power-heavy 100 car coal trains with 9 ACs battling the high altitude and steep grades like you'll never see again. Acclaimed by critics and fans alike, this has been a best selling video featuring Southern Pacific and the Rio Grande in a never to repeated show of force.
These are all visions you can no longer see!
In 1996, UP bought Southern Pacific. UP preferred the Moffat Tunnel for routing traffic. The last revenue train went over the Tennessee Pass on August 23, 1997.
Our movie crews were there to capture the last months of operation. Coal, Manifest and merchandise trains all run by the two cameras on a journey from Pueblo to Dotsero, Colorado where the line joins with the Moffat Route. We also show early the history of regional narrow and standard gauge development and explain the DRGW operating strategies right to the end of operation. A surprise includes a solid segment on surviving DRGW power on the Southern Pacific system into the late 90's. Included are GP-30, SD-50s, SD45s, and sets of DRGW SD45t-2's pulling on steep grades. The Tennessee Pass line is closed for now but you can relive all the action in this critically acclaimed beautifully shot 90 minute documentary - ยานยนต์และพาหนะ
![Columbia River Gorge Trains [Part 1 Union Pacific]](/img/n.gif)
Here is a lengthy segment from our DVD "Tennessee Pass: from start to finish! This line is now abandoned and the story is epic. Find it at www.cspmovies.com
What a tribute to a great railroad from the 70's and ended in 1988, most rail fans will always miss the tennessee pass Through the Rockies.😢😌👏👏👏
There is a train HOBO on the backside of grain car #2 at 50:47. Thats hysterical - good catch !! 😂🤭
Just shows how lax they were back then. you wouldn't find them riding that close to the head end nowadays
20:53 Bet the camera guy was thinking the same thing I am right now. Well, at least it was spelt right.
Great program and memories of my favorite railroad of all times. R.I.P. Rio Grande: 🪦 🙏 ✝️ 😢 .
I really enjoyed watching this video! I visited the Royal Gorge cack in the 1990's, when I was 19 years old!
Notice the hobo riding in the old style, conventional box car. You're unlikely to ever see that again. I'm surprised that Charles Smiley didn't mention that.
Very well showing
Thanks we appreciate the kind words, more to come!
This is my favorite Smiley program along with Donner Pass.
Thanks Mary, we are really fond of these 2 movies as well. SP was our favorite hands down and these lines were special. Thanks for your support these last 30 years!
43:10 Love how a guys just standing on the inside of a boxcar!😂
That is classic old school SP for sure!
Sweet !!❤ Love the sound 🔊 from the TURBO, on those Prime-Movers. GEVO-ON !! my friends. Hello from Washington DC !!🎉
Yes, the sound of old engines makes us all happy. This grade tested their horsepower and also dynamic braking!
I hope they reactivate this line. I’d love to see train action like this return to these rails. The silence is deafening 😢
Yes, that would be something special!
I Love it... great video.
Thanks Johnny have a super weekend!
very professional Charles
Thanks James, we try to add production value to our movies. Maps, history, music and a meaningful script to tie it all together. And then of course "Many Visions We Can No Longer See Today!
Is it just me or is the audio a little off in this video. But nonetheless it is still a classic
Really enjoyed the video, relived old memories
Rio Grande only bought SD-40 tunnel motors.
Tennessee pass grade is a steep grade but the steepest grade ive heard heard of is the Saluda grade in North Carolina
Nathaniel, yes Saluda was the steepest at %5.0, but it was not that busy and most of the loads went downhill. Having said that it was nothing short of spectacular. The thing about TP is they ran 20-25 trains a day both directions with heavy tonnage and usually 2 sets of helpers. In the DRGW days they often used 20 GP-30 and GP-40 engines to lug one coal train in a never to repeated configuration of 7 engines on the point, 9 on the swing helper and 4 shoving the caboose!
@charlessmileyvideo This is a great history video about Tennessee Pass. I just said it wasn't the steepest. I really like Rio Grande Tennessee Pass. I live in Colorado and I love trains. I have seen many videos about Tennessee Pass. I used to have a VHS video from WB Video called THE RIO GRANDE TODAY. I haven't seen it at train shows on dvd only online to buy. It would be nice to see it on TH-cam. It's about the last train Rio grande California zephyr from Denver. To see the Amtrak California zephyr on the moffat line. The first half is about the moffat line and the second is about Tennessee Pass. I agree with you to see 7 units on the front of a coal train and 9 midtrain helpers in the middle. I love the moffat line and Tennessee Pass. I just hate to see the Tennessee Pass just abandoned and rotting away. Why union pacific won't left BNSF take it over?
Sound like a train ate a goose 😂🤣12:32
They did find loose feathers on the rails.
Only tough guys allowed on those rails
There has been a strong move to turn the Tennessee Pass railroad into a Rail-Trail for bicycles, but at 3% grade I don't believe people are addressing how very difficult riding a bicycle at a continues grade far over 1% grade at a 3% grade and 10,000 feet altitude would be! If just a stone dust path down grade rides would likely be the only viable option and even if paved smooth riding at a continues 3% grade at 10,000 feet altitude would be extremely difficult. Going up grade would not be a relaxing bike ride and near torture. The fact that the line started out as a 3-foot narrow gauge of the Rock Mountains will attract a lot of adventure cyclists.
My guess is that the Moffat rail line is faster passenger train travel into Denver than the Tennessee Pass. I wonder how the scenery rates between Grand Junction to Denver on the Moffat line verses the Tennessee Pass line? When a young teenager my Dad took us to see the Royal Gorge with the railroad track seen at the bottom. I didn't understand where we were. I remember my dad driving the car on a gravel mountain road around this area about 1975.
It would seem a State sponsored tourist sightseeing train might keep the Tennessee Pass rail line in service possibly closing for the winter to avoid snow issues. Google Maps 2024-02-16 satellite view doesn't have detailed views of much of the Tennessee Pass railroad, most notably around the Royal Gorge.
I'd like to see Tennessee Pass railway upgraded and used for passenger and double stack freight. It may still prove the best route in the distance future with a base tunnel avoiding the 3% grade.
Why do all of that when you can just go to the north or to the south of it? That's the problem.