Re: Old South Park Surveys
| August 17, 2010 01:48PM |
Hi, Hank!
A couple of thoughts...
The South Park always came in second, methinks, because Evans was building a mainline railroad (look at the construction of the Palisades and the start of another one up Ohio Creek), while Palmer was haphazardly throwing down rail and putting up spindly bridges to reach the gold and silver camps as quickly as possible; the lines could always be upgraded later.
The problem with the Alpine Tunnel was not simply its remote and high locations. Significant miles of approaches to the tunnel were built in the wrong place: north-facing slopes, where the railroad never had any benefit of "solar snow removal"--hence the staggering costs of snow plowing.
The tunnel would have forever been a limiting factor for most of the railroad because of the constricted loading gauge of the tunnel. It would have proven difficult, if not impossible, to ever upgrade to any motive power larger than the South Park's original teapots without having to reconstruct the entire tunnel to more generous proportions. No K-series equivalents through that keyhole!
Photo from DPL
Mike
A couple of thoughts...
The South Park always came in second, methinks, because Evans was building a mainline railroad (look at the construction of the Palisades and the start of another one up Ohio Creek), while Palmer was haphazardly throwing down rail and putting up spindly bridges to reach the gold and silver camps as quickly as possible; the lines could always be upgraded later.
The problem with the Alpine Tunnel was not simply its remote and high locations. Significant miles of approaches to the tunnel were built in the wrong place: north-facing slopes, where the railroad never had any benefit of "solar snow removal"--hence the staggering costs of snow plowing.
The tunnel would have forever been a limiting factor for most of the railroad because of the constricted loading gauge of the tunnel. It would have proven difficult, if not impossible, to ever upgrade to any motive power larger than the South Park's original teapots without having to reconstruct the entire tunnel to more generous proportions. No K-series equivalents through that keyhole!
Photo from DPL
Mike
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488 stops for water at Los Pinos tank on closing day Oct. 1979. Photo courtesy Don Richter
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