hank Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> To bring this back to NG, it has always struck me
> as odd that the RGS apparently never had a wye atdoing a lot of
> it's Cima (MP 141.2) or even just down the line at
> the junction of the Mayday branch/spur (MP 141.9)
> There seems to have been plenty of room for one
> and this was the summit of the 2.5% out of both
> Durango and Mancos.
> OTOH, the usual operating pattern seems to have
> been to just run the helpers on through but still,
> it seems odd not to have one there. What if they
> had to double the hill?
> hank
Having walked around Cima a few times, there isn't a good place to put a wye without doing a lot of fill work. Another problem is the snow up there in the winter is pretty bad with the wind creating huge drifts. Steam engines are notorious failures at bucking snow in reverse. The same question about Cima could be applied to Millwood too. While the grade from Durango to Cima was a long hard pull, the climb up from Mancos was fairly short and I guess it wasn't a big a deal to either back down the hill or run ahead knowing there would another train to help back up the hill. If you had to double the hill, and you had a wye, if you turned at the top and went back to your train, you would now be facing the wrong way to go back.