Re: Abandoned Railroad near Walden CO???

Hi Mike,

Actually what was the saddest thing of all is that a line could have been built using both of the WYCO lines.

If this line was built, using some UP projected plans as a guide, a really easy gradient could have been built by bridging the North Platte River at Saratoga, continuing to Riverside on the original S&EV grade and constructing a new line from Riverside to Walden.

The grade would not have had to cross the Snowy Range and it still would have connected with the UP as a major carrier.

If it were me, and fortunately for the preservationists it's not, I would have pursued this Saratoga to Walden projection as a coal route as it would have handled the 110 car coal trains easily on minimal grades and let the rest of the line from Walden to Laramie go to scrap or seed as there was no significant traffic to speak of.

But now even the track to Saratoga has been torn up, so any dream of hauling North Park coal would be prohibitively expensive.

Ah but hindsight is 20/20. We'll just have to wait for the Powder River Basin to run out to make something like this profitable.

Rick