tgbcvr Wrote:
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> Excellent abandonment summary, I had thought the
> landslip was in one go. Thanks for putting it
> right. I guess the easy chasing on the highway was
> the sole reason why the Hairpin Creek curve was a
> photography dark spot.
>
thank you [blushes]
I should also mention that there were several (as many as 6 more, IIRC) places where the earth was a-moving along the line between the big curve crossing Hairpin Creek and Cedar Creek. To dig into the geology of it all, irrigation of the top of the mesa to the south of Cedar Creek valley and to the west of Hairpin Creek ( the one the ROW was cut out of the side of) had, over years, resulted in water lubricating the sub-surface shale layers and caused them to slide/slip. By the time of the abandonment hearings this irrigation had been stopped. D&RGW estimated that they would have to spend $1 mil to move the line to the north side of Cedar Creek at the big slide. At least one witness, a local bulldozer operator (how he's identified in the records, don't know if that's all he was or if he was part of some local construction firm or what) who had previously done some work for the RR at that site of the biggest slide, stated that the Grande was full of it (my words) and all they really needed to do was some (far cheaper, presumably) drainage work to de-water the hill. At this point, who knows.
Abandonment of the Gunnison-Montrose section had been recommended in the 1938 Branch Line Report(before the 1st big slip), even though the committee acknowleged that, at that time, it was "paying it's way." So you pays your money and you makes your choice as to what was actually going on.
I expect that you're spot on about the lack of easy access to the Hairpin being why it's "dark." My bet is that if a picture with tracks in place were to show up it would be pre-1936 and shot from a train window or an end platform by a tourist. Probably on Kodak box camera or some such. So there might be hope, if of a blurry nature.
Hank
ps I suspect this may be the longest thread *ever* on this board on a 3rd Division topic!