Ken Martin Wrote:
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Gov Evans had been trying to come up with a Joint Track deal into Leadville for a couple of years, first with the Santa Fe and then, after the Tripartite Agreement with the Grande. you can hardly say Gould forced him into it. he just thought it was stupid to build two tracks from Buena Vista to Leadville when one would do.
> They did not use Marshal Pass because Otto Mears
> had a toll road over it and would not sell to the
> South Park.
Wrong. Altman Pass was chosen because it was a more direct route. Several (secondary) sources also state that Maj Evans was unable to find a suitable route over Marshall Pass, one even claims the best he could do involved 8% grades. At any rate, going over Marshall would have been 79.42 miles from Nathrop to Parlin (D&RG mileage via Salida) vs 53.1 via Altman Pass.
As to the Mears Toll road on Marshall, while it was chartered in '77, in '79 it was not yet completed - work wasn't finished until the late Spring of '80 by which time the South Park was already digging Alpine Tunnel (work commenced January '80). There was very little contact between the Mears road and the D&RG route over Marshall any way, it was of use mostly for bringing in supplies. It wouldn't have been an impediment to the South Park if they wanted to go that way.
> After Gould bought the South Park and
> sold it to the UP Palmer considered the agreement
> broken
True, sorta. it was the Tripartite Agreement, the one that ended the Royal Gorge war, that Palmer felt had been broken. The 3rd party to that was UP and they had agreed not to build into the Colorado Rockies (never been too clear on how CC fit in there) in competition with the Grande.
> and got the rights to Marshall Pass and got
> his track into Gunnison while the South Park was
> tied up with Alpine Tunnel.
Correct. DSP&P engineers had misread the geology of Altman Pass. They expected hard rock right through but it was mostly old slides.
> I believe Mears was
> related to Palmer
Otto Mears was of Russian Jewish stock, Palmer was East Coast patrician. No way on Earth.
> Since the Rio Grand had used the Black Canyon the
> South Park did start up Ohio Pass
Which was already the plan for the "Utah Branch" by early 1880. The "Arizona Branch" was to have gone via the Black Canyon. DSP&P also meant to reach the coal mines along the North Fork of the Gunnison by this route.
Interesting to wonder, if it had been completed as far as, let's say Paonia, how much difference the greater traffic might have made to Alpine. More loads to bear the cost of keeping it open in winter...
> but abandoned it
> when the D&RG connected with the RGW at Grand
> Junction.
Right on timing but cause was more likely penny-pinching from Omaha. By this time Up was well into raping the DSP&P for all it get. Remember, this isn't the shiny, well run UP of the 20th century we're talking about, this is the perpetually on the edge of bankruptcy, carrying a crushing load of debt to the Government (and you thought they just gave them all that money)(CP paid off by WWI, UP crashed & defaulted in '93) which meant they couldn't raise funds and were in general the weakest of the western lines all through the 80's.
As to the question of actual survey maps, I don't know if anything filed with the Federal Government in the late 1870's would still exist but I suspect the companies copies were trashed, at the latest, in the WWI scrap paper drive the C&S was so enthusiastic about, Same one that, some believe, got rid of the records of early C&S engine sales & rebuilding leaving much confusion among fans.
hank
