A westbound work train has just passed beneath the 10th Mountain Division Memorial Highway at Pando on Rio Grande's Tennessee Pass mainline. Note that more than a dozen workers with hardhats are r... (more)

A coal Drag at Mitchell. It took 9 AC's to lift 13000 tons over the 3% Tennessee Pass. I saw them do it with 8, but they barely made it!

UP8016 screams upgrade at Mitchell. This was a rare consist for a Tennessee Pass coal load. It is unlikely many pure UP lash-ups made it over Tennessee Pass on coal loads before the pass closed.... (more)

Negotiating the reverse curves at Mitchell, 5345 and 3033 slowly bring a short westbound freight down from Tennessee Pass in the fall of 1981.

One of the last trains over Tennessee Pass is heading north towards Leadville.

Another pic of 100-car #790 eastbound coal behind 3099 3033 3056 3014 3026 3020 3111 as it is down to walking pace negotiating the curves at Mitchell on November 1981. Assisting from Minturn to Te... (more)

3115, 3064 and 3113 swing into the curve at Kobe, south of Leadville, on a short westbound freight in October 1981.

Eastbound freight 150, its caboose marred with graffiti, skims the outskirts of Leadville on its way to Pueblo. The closure of the Tennessee Pass line was only a few years in the future; this wou... (more)

5402 leads 5413, 5351 and 5385 out of the tunnel at Tennessee Pass on a helper set returning to Minturn in September 1985.

A 100-car #790 eastbound coal heads through Pando behind 3099 3033 3056 3014 3026 3020 3111. Assisting from Minturn to Tennessee Pass were ten mid-train helpers with a further three just ahead o... (more)

Rio Grime! 5343, 5370, 5392, 5333 and 5325 slowly exit the tunnel at Tennessee Pass followed by a pall of choking black exhaust in July 1981. This monster one hundred car eastbound coal train (#79... (more)

6 tunnel motors slog up the Tennessee Pass towards Leadville. The first 5 are still in Rio Grande Livery.

Late afternoon on a cold December day in 1981, finds a dusty 3100, 3079, 3108 and 5320 break out into a lone shaft of sunlight as they haul eastbound #36 slowly through the shadows of Mitchell.

C&S 641 backs into town to pickup its train for Climax on an absolutely glorious winter day in the Arkansas River Valley. In the background are several peaks that exceed 14,000 feet. I think one... (more)

The heavy work now over, an eastbound freight runs downgrade on the eastern slopes of Tennessee Pass at Keeldar, near Leadville, behind 3092, 5317 and 3088, in May 1981.