Re: Monarch Pass

RDannemann Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> hank Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > So the question remains: why did the Monarch
> brach
> > wind up being constructed so much more steeply,
> > and with switchback, only a few years later?
> > hank
>
>
> Served its' intended purpose this way without
> extra expense.
>
> Most of the Monarch Branch was built to serve to
> serve a mine
> owned by CF&I. Monarch branch was scrapped when
> CF&I ended
> their Pueblo steel mill making operation in the
> early 1980's.


Actually the Monarch Br. was built to serve the Silver Mining district of the same name, the Madonna Mine being the mainstay. It wasn't until the 1920-30's that CF&I built the quarry for the limestone trains as we know it. After the Silver Panic of 1893, there was very little traffic on the branch until the upgrades, the trackage at Monarch proper being considerably extended.

X-12362 [digital.denverlibrary.org]


The trackage originally was much simpler with only a single spur switchbacked to the Madonna Orehouse.

CHS.J623 [digital.denverlibrary.org]





A typical early Branch train at Maysville.
Z-5486 [digital.denverlibrary.org]