Re: Alpine & Boreas Passes - Stone Engine House Question

So was there really loco maintenance planned at Boreas and Alpine that would warrant the stone structures? Or was it just over-building through not knowing the operating situation in the mountains during the early days.

tbgvr,

keep in mind there weren't any other routes crossing high Mountain Passes at that time other than Sherman Hill and Donner Pass. The DSP&P (later UP) was building for permanence with stone construction while the D&RG was building for territory with wood construction. Only the Fremont Pass was the exception on the South Park lines with the wooden Enginehouse.

The South Park went with Stone retaining walls on Kenosha, and Alpine Passes, Stone Abutments/Piers on most Bridges, Stone Roundhouses at Como and Gunnison, Stone Watertank bases at Como and Gunnison, and a Stone Depot at Gunnison.

And oddly, the D&RG built a Stone Depot at Veta Pass with the D&RG quickly covered their Turntables at Marshall and Cumbres.

The "idea" that these structures were for maintenance seems to be a presupposition started by modellers not understanding what Rick Steele has just written above me. Keeping out of the weather makes a lot of sense, placing the Turntable, Water tank and Coaling Platform inside these structures at Boreas and Alpine also makes a lot of sense.

The D&RG then went about face with the Soldier Summit fiasco in the 1920's, corporate planning on paper with no realistic interpretation of the operating difficulty at hand on the top of a Mountain Pass.