Hi SP,
You were following the grade of the Laramie, Hahn's Peak and Pacific; Larimer & Routt County Railroad; Colorado, Wyoming and Eastern; Laramie, North Park & Western. These are different corporate incarnations of the same company. This line was laid out to 3' gauge spec's and was hastily changed to 4' 8 1/2" shortly before it was constructed. The line went from the tail track of the wye at Laramie due west to Centennial, Wyoming. It then turned to the south, went through Albany and started climbing using a couple of Horseshoe curves.
The Main line went through Albany at three different locations. You could get off the train on the lower track, walk to the upper track and beat the train on its way up the hill. I know, I did it several times.
From there you went by Lake Owen, through Fox Park and usually met the eastbound at Wycolo, aka Mountain Home where there was a passing siding good for a 36 car coal train. You left there and went downgrade past the old stations of Camp and King's Canyon. King's Canyon is the location of the grade that you saw up on the hill side. You hit Northgate where there was a wye where tank cars of CO2 were loaded and then dropped into North Park and went by Cowdrey and Brownlee and into Walden.
The UP acquired this line in 1951. About 1990 the line was sold to the WYCO railroad along with the branch from Walcott to Saratoga, WY. It was on this carrier that the photos of the Walden Branch that were posted earlier were taken. A couple of bad winter storms and a lack of adequate power spelled the doom of the this line under the WYCO. The tourist line was too long for most folks, and the first few miles form Laramie to Centennial and Albany were actually quite blah, scenery wise.
When I first began working the line the track from Walden south was abandoned in place. The main line of the "Peak" (notice how old names die hard) had been relaid in UP standard 131 lb. jointed main line relay rail from Laramie to Walden. From Walden south 10 miles to Larand the original 60 lb. rail remained. From Larand to Hebron and on to Coalmont was abandoned by that time. I think that's right, the track may have been in to Hebron, but the loop at Coalmont was definitely gone. I got out on some of that 60 lb rail at one time when I was a brakeman on a Jordan Spreader for a week while we were clearing the line up there.
In checking my 1985 Track profiles, I see that the WAS in to Hebron but I never went back that far. Walden was MP 92.21 and Hebron was MP 107.5. Between those two points the track was 60 lb rail laid in 1911.
The line hauled Coal from Walden to Laramie for Kerr-McGee coal company. Lumber was hauled out of the Louisiana-Pacific Mill at Walden. CO2 was hauled out of Northgate. Wood Chips were switched out of Fox Park and Centennial, until Centennial's Mill burned down. At one time the Walden Pool had six turns on it. You would leave Laramie in the Morning and tie up in Walden 12 hours later. You would check yourself into the local motel, called the Village Inn, call yourself the next morning, and head back to Laramie.
It was a good job and the scenery from Albany to Northgate was spectacular. In the winter it was like running a train through a Christmas Card. The business drop that killed the line for UP was when the Coal Mines shut down around Walden.
There were a couple of books written on the Railroad. The earliest is "The Laramie Plains Line" by Frank Hollenbeck. The WYCO had one book published on its operation. The railroad is also covered in Bob LaMassena's book "Colorado's Mountain Railroads" (either the Smoking Stack Press or Sundance editions) and receives extensive review in Ken Jessen's "Railroads of Northern Colorado".
The line itself was actually ill-conceived and got the reputation of an investment scam in its early days. It took from 1901 to 1907 to construct the line from Laramie to Centennial, the easiest part to construct across the Wyoming High Plains. Miller, between Laramie and Centennial, was, ironically enough, the steepest grade on the line at 2 1/2%. The rest of the line was a pretty steady 2%.
This line also had the reputation of having some of the ugliest depots ever seen by the human eye.
Rick
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/18/2009 01:31PM by Rick Steele.
