Engraving, "The Great Loop on the Denver & Rio Grande"

I recently encountered the engraving below, titled "The Great Loop on the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad", which appeared in Harper's Weekly magazine in 1888. It's apparently based on an original drawing from 1887 by Charles Graham.

Is this an image that people have seen before? I don't recall seeing it in any histories of the Colorado narrow gauge, which is curious given its obvious interest and the prominence of the publication (the leading national magazine of its era).

My first thought was that it must have been intended as a depiction of the Cumbres Loop (a.k.a. Tanglefoot Curve), or perhaps Mule Shoe Curve, but upon further inspection I'm now convinced it's actually Whiplash looking east toward Antonito. If you look closely it even shows the Big Horn section house inside the lower loop.



-Philip Marshall