Re: Monarch Pass

It's been a long time since I was over Monarch Pass, but it seems to me the quarry is down in a valley, and any railroad continuing to the summit would have to climb out of that valley to surmount the ridge over the summit.

It doesn't matter how you cut it, you have to make the elevation to get over the hill. The shorter the route, the steeper the grade. The water course and valley followed up to Monarch got so steep above Maysville, the RR had to make a big double reverse curve to stay above the rapidly rising valley. Eventually the valley grew so narrow that looping was not possible, and a double switchback was necessary to gain the proper elevation. Even with these tricks, the ruling grade was a back breaking 4.5%, the steepest grade in the modern history of the D&RGW narrow gauge.

The point I am trying to make here is that if the D&RG had used Monarch Pass as their gateway to the Gunnison Country, they must had a much different plan than what was constructed as the Monarch Branch. With that in mind, I wonder what the other idea was? They would have had to make the route longer to reduce the grades, then deal with the rapidly climbing canyon that would eventually require a big double loop and a double switchback to conquer. It would have been an interesting project.