Re: Alpine & Boreas Passes - Stone Engine House Question

Thanks Jeff.

All I did was transcribe the Receiver's Reports. The originals are at the Union Pacific Museum in Council Bluffs. They were found by Jim Eherenberger and he had me transcribe them. The only UP subsidiary that he never found was the Kearney and Black Hills.

For a possible answer to the dilemma that so worries tgbcvr, is the reason that that the turntable was not listed was not because it was not installed, because the Receivers Reports AND the Excavation evidence shows that it was.

It would have been a foolish and unnecessary expense for the railroad to install a turntable, remove it and reinstall it. Cross that stupid idea off your list. After all, it's not about what railfans conjecture, it's all about money and the UP was a master at it.

It very well could have been a tax/use issue. The turntable could very easily been shown as out of service and inventoried as part of the run-through track at Alpine Tunnel Engine House, after all, locomotives had to water and fuel inside the house and NO, Nobody would have been allowed to live inside the engine house, That's what the Stone Boarding House was for. It was probably not listed due to (a) lack of use and (b) less equipment to pay taxes on.

The turntable could have been used so little because of the helpers running through to Hancock, turning and Running back to Romley (which, according to some sources, was the division point for Freight Crews).

Or they just turned the locomotives there and, like the RGS and No. 20 didn't mention that they used it or said that it was out of service.

Rick



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/09/2019 12:59PM by Rick Steele.