From US 24 and looking west, you can see the location of Rex, CO, where the grade steepened 4 miles from Minturn to around 2.8%. At Belden (6 miles east of Minturn), the grade varies from 1.36 to 2.56% due to the sharp curves in the canyon. The steepest grade of the Tennessee Pass route was 3.3% at Rex, MP 298, likely at this tangent, between reverse curves. The grade reached a full 3% at Red Cliff, just east of MP 294.
I never saw the MILW in the western states, but I was thinking the same thing as you upon seeing Hemi's latest posts.
The Mobile & Ohio's branchline between Tuscaloosa, AL and Montgomery, AL was opened in 1898 and was operated by the ICG at the time of this picture at Pearson, AL in April 1984. Shortly thereafter, ICG downsizing resulted in abandonment of this segment.
From 07/18/1985 at Greendell, NJ on the DL&W's once immaculate cutoff across the Garden State, as completed in 1911. GD Tower and the station still stand.
Sometimes it is simply impossible to comprehend how something once so vital, became essentially worthless.
At 0040 in the morning, there's no trains on the Northgate Branch, but that didn't stop me from enjoying some auroras! Aurelia, ND: Coulee, ND:
Spectacular!!! That the red was so intense says a lot about how strong the solar storm was. These aurorae were even more spoken of, by the media over the weekend, than sports! Thanks for sharing that.
Beautiful sir!!! Reported to be one of the strongest storms in over 20 years. Not visible in my neighborhood due to too much light pollution by there were areas here in the north side of Atlanta where they could be seen. Unreal it was visible this far south.
Not quite an "Insert Train Here" picture, but while looking for caboose pictures, I came across this shot of a C&O water column at Quinnimont, WV taken 04/10/1988. I miss this era of railfanning when there remained so much to discover. It wasn't always the big stuff either, like finding a CNJ lock on a relay case in June 1981 at Perth Amboy, NJ. Or a very old piece of Lehigh & New England track hardware as found in 1982, some twenty years after the railroad shut down.
