Photo ID: 107457 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, May 6, 2018 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed West Wolcott Eagle County, CO 1183 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Tennessee Pass (UP) Rio Grande, Union Pacific The west end of Wolcott is located right at milepost 319, as you can see here. It is interesting to note that this is the location at which the original Rio Grande (over Tennessee Pass) is closest to the Denver & Salt Lake mainline (now the Moffat), with the exception of the Dotsero Cutoff, of course. Bond is just about ten miles to the north, as the crow flies, from Wolcott. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 107458 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, May 6, 2018 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed West Wolcott Eagle County, CO 1114 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Tennessee Pass (UP) Rio Grande, Union Pacific In addition to the weeds growing, a few rocks have also gathered near the rails of the siding of Wolcott. The signal head from the siding has been removed. You can still see the pole for the signal with a "P" plate in the distance. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 107459 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, May 6, 2018 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed West Wolcott Eagle County, CO 1141 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Tennessee Pass (UP) Rio Grande, Union Pacific When exploring Tennessee Pass at various times in the past few years, I have seen some growth of bushes near, and even encroaching on, the rails. However, I have not seen anything like this tree at the west end of Wolcott. It has grown to well over ten feet, right between the rails! Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 107460 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, May 6, 2018 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed East Avon Avon, CO 1144 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Tennessee Pass (UP) Rio Grande, Union Pacific A look to the west at the east switch of Avon on Tennessee Pass. The siding here is over 8,300 feet long! Perfect for meeting long trains that, in all likelihood, will never traverse the line again. Note the hand throw has been set such that the switch points are centered between the rails. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 107461 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, May 6, 2018 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed East of Avon Avon, CO 1147 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Tennessee Pass (UP) Rio Grande, Union Pacific Looking east from Avon, the rails do not appear to be all that bad. Welded rail was laid here before the pass was closed. The tied, on the other hand, look to be in pretty rough shape! Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 107462 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, May 6, 2018 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed East Avon Avon, CO 1123 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Tennessee Pass (UP) Rio Grande, Union Pacific The electrical box for the power switch at east Avon has been opened and it has been stripped of its wiring. Note the switch point also moved a little way away from the main. The hand throw on the power switch shows why. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 107463 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, May 6, 2018 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed East Avon Avon, CO 1167 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Tennessee Pass (UP) Rio Grande, Union Pacific A look at the switch at the east end of Avon. The switch has been taken out of "power mode", which is not surprising as power has been supplied to it in two decades! Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 107464 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, May 6, 2018 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed East Avon Avon, CO 1135 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Tennessee Pass (UP) Rio Grande, Union Pacific A tree at the east end of Avon is growing around the base of the signal and up between the signal and the control box! It'll be interesting to see what the tree looks like in another twenty years... Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 107465 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, May 6, 2018 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed East of Minturn Minturn, CO 1155 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Tennessee Pass (UP) Rio Grande, Union Pacific This shot looks east from (near) the east switch of Minturn. The tracks here have become a very common hiking trail for residents in the area. When out taking picture today, I came across two sets of people on a rail hike along with their dogs. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 107466 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, May 6, 2018 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed East Minturn Minturn, CO 1193 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Tennessee Pass (UP) Rio Grande, Union Pacific Trains descending the 3% grade of Tennessee Pass would see this view all the time as they approached the yard at Minturn. This is the east switch, which looks like it is in relatively good shape at first. But, look a little closer, and you'll see the lenses have been removed from most of the signal heads. The electrical equipment (wiring) is all long gone, too. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 107467 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, May 6, 2018 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed East Minturn Minturn, CO 1166 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Tennessee Pass (UP) Rio Grande, Union Pacific Looking east at the east switch of Minturn, you can see right through the head of the dwarf signal on the siding! The lens and all the "guts" from the head are no gone, and there is an empty hole through the middle of it. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 107468 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, May 6, 2018 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed East Minturn Minturn, CO 1162 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Tennessee Pass (UP) Rio Grande, Union Pacific We are 301 miles away from Denver...if you go through Pueblo first, that is! When the Denver & Rio Grande built its original line south of Denver, they turned west at Pueblo and, as we know, built over Tennessee Pass. The mileposts just kept increasing along the way as this was once the primary route for the railroad. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 107469 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, May 6, 2018 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed East Minturn Minturn, CO 1171 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Tennessee Pass (UP) Rio Grande, Union Pacific When starting on a grade, trains will often times use sand to help them gain traction and start (or keep) moving. Engines have nozzles that aim right between the wheel and the rail and can blast sand out at the point where they meet. Due to the 2.3% grade at the east end of Minturn, nearly every train would need sand to help it start rolling. So much sand, in fact, that there is still plenty of evidence of it along the siding twenty years later! Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 107470 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, May 6, 2018 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Minturn Minturn, CO 1286 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Tennessee Pass (UP) Rio Grande, Union Pacific Just in case you were wondering how little UP invests in doing any maintenance on Tennessee Pass, this should be a good answer! Mother nature did what it always does and eroded enough of the hillside to dislodge this massive boulder. It came rolling off the hill sometime around 2013 and landed right on the mainline near the east end of Minturn. Five years later, the boulder continues to rest in its new home. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 107471 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, May 6, 2018 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Minturn Minturn, CO 1150 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Tennessee Pass (UP) Rio Grande, Union Pacific When this boulder came down off the hill and landed on the mainline, it also shifted a lot of earth around. The rails of both the mainline and the siding were severed as a result of the impact. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture.

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