Anyone remember the Monarch branch?

[4X2DSP]

DRGW 3018 coming into Salida near the Hwy 285 crossing in August of '78. Apparently this line is no longer in service :( .

http://home.comcast.net/~jdabbott/Monarch_local_8-78.jpg

About a week later... 3001 leaving Monarch on it's return trip from the quarry:

http://home.comcast.net/~jdabbott/Monarch_mine_8-78.jpg

A little dark, but still captures the whole train paralleling hwy 50, as we say good bye for the last time ever....

http://home.comcast.net/~jdabbott/Monarch_mine_rr_8-78.jpg

[JASON]

Jeff this is fantastic,where did you get these photo's?
I always planned on an Nn3 layout of the Monarch,complete with barrel transfer into standard gauge cars.
I think this is a great section of DRGW that was always over looked,even an N scale modual of this trackage is appealing......mmmm........
BTW thats a damn fine looking helix on your layout!

[ June 12, 2005, 09:33 PM: Message edited by: JASON ]

[BoxcabE50]

Wasn't this branch narrow gauged for many years? Before they widened the rails? Had a big switchback?

:D

Boxcab E50

[Keith]

It was narrow gauge in the begining.
Don't recall when it was converted to standard gauge. Jim Ozment gave a BMRC clinic one night on Monarch. Was very interesting slide show.
And as mentioned, branch line is long gone.
Remnants of the grade still exist though, far as I know.

Switch back at Hwy 50 grade crossing. Was around a 4% grade, although I could very well be wrong! Also a 2 track siding at grade crossing, as train had to be doubled to continue up, or down the grade. Crews would also park entire train on both tracks and then grab food before continuing the trip.

Friend of mine has more slides of some of the action on Monarch. Would have to ask and see though.

[JASON]

If I remember rightly those two GP30's had the job all the time 'cause they had a deeper cycle dynamic braking system to handle the grades.

[4X2DSP]

Originally posted by JASON:
Jeff this is fantastic,where did you get these photo's?
BTW thats a damn fine looking helix on your layout! Thanks for the kind words. My Dad was quite patient with me on a trip to Buena Vista CO that year. I'll see if I can't post some more on other threads taken during that trip. We went through Ariz paralleling the ATSF, DRGW through Glenwood Canyon, up to see the Craig branch, east side of Moffat, and back home via Grand Junction and the Marysvale branch. I wish all the pics came out, but I was challenged with no light meter, and Colorado skies.
The helix was a neccessity to increase run times..... no regrets.

[HemiAdda2d]

Great stuff!
IIRC, on one of my DVD's, either Way West Odyessy, or the Rio Grande Odyessy, there is some great footage of the Monarch Branch.....
Also, in this book (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/076031442X/qid=1119822075/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/104-3150851-6069504?v=glance&s=books&n=507846), there are some pics of Monarch action.... Yes, 4.5% grades, 24-degree curves....

http://www.ghostdepot.com/rg/maps/profiles/drgw%20profile%2015.gif

[BoxcabE50]

Seems to me that WB Video, or (?) had one of their narrow gauge D&RGW videos that covered the Monarch branch. Dubbed sound, with anun-natural, annoying dynamo whistle. But it showed the switchback operation.

:D

Boxcab E50

[Wig-Wag LLC]

Rio Grande Odyessy covered it I believe. If not it was the Great Circle video done by some relatively unknown company. Heck maybe both.

Darn now I want to dig those tapes out of storage to verify which.

[HemiAdda2d]

That would be the RGO, George.

[BoxcabE50]

Believe the video I'm thinking of, may have been "D&RGW Narrow Gauge Freights" by WB Video Prod. Haven't seen it in years. Don't have current access to a copy, to check if it's the one.

:D

Boxcab E50

[HemiAdda2d]

Another video to add to the 'most wanted' list....

[coloradorailroads]

I just found this thread after Hemi posted to it. Narrow Gauge Glory Vol 1 from Herron Rail (http://www.herronrail.com/video_store.html) has a 10 minute segment on the Monarch Branch. Obviously, it covers the narrow gauge operations.

The Monarch branch was built in 1883 to reach some gold mines and converted from narrow to standard gauge in 1956 as it still served the quarry. This was just after the Marshall Pass abandonment of 1955. I was very young, but I do remember seeing Geeps working the Monarch branch in the early 80s before it too was abandoned.

[HemiAdda2d]

It was adandoned in 1982, and pulled up in 1985, as I recall. Built to reach gold mines? I always thought its sole purpose was to feed CF&I steelmaking limestone.

[coloradorailroads]

It was adandoned in 1982, and pulled up in 1985, as I recall. Built to reach gold mines? I always thought its sole purpose was to feed CF&I steelmaking limestone. So did I. I was surprised but there it was, right in LaMassena's Rio Grande: To the Pacific!

[HemiAdda2d]

I stand corrected. Thanks for clearing that up!!

[bryan9]

I think John Armstrong would have called the Monarch Branch "modelgenic" -- that is, it has interesting features that translate into an equally interesting and fun model railroad or a branch of a model railroad. As explained in Rio Grande Odyssey, the limestone mine was set up so that the empties, once delivered, could be moved by gravity alone to be filled and subsequently parked on the pick-up tracks to be taken down the grade. So the Geeps would haul up the empties and set them out, and then pick up the loaded cars for the trip down the grade. Quite a lot of time was spent checking the brakes before beginning the descent, the initial part of which (if I am not mistaken) involved backing down the grade, caboose-first, so that the locos would be properly oriented after traversing the switchback.

At some point I am hoping to develop a branch line for my Utah Division (Helper-Soldier Summit) layout. There are several prototypical possibilities (see http://utahrails.net/drgw/images/rg-profile-1934-27.jpg, but I’m toying with the idea of building in a Monarch-branch-style switchback and loading scheme.

[HemiAdda2d]

I would love to see a model of the Monarch Branch.. 4.5% grades, 24-degree curves...

[coloradorailroads]

I have to say that if I was modeling, Monarch Pass would be my first choice. Shops would be in Salida and a short mainstreet. A couple of crossings of highway and the limestone quarry (and maybe a stray ski area if I had the space and money). Geeze I dream big. :angel:

The question is, would it be prior to the conversion to standard gauge?

[coloradorailroads]

Something else you might be interested to know about is the strange kinship Monarch Pass and Marshall Pass have had in the 20th century. Back when they were planning US 50 in the 1930s, they had to pick one of three routes, Monarch, Marshall, or Cochetopa/Kebler. Cochetopa had the lowest crossing making it the friendliest to trucking, but not to local business. Marshall was lower than Monarch, meaning less snow, and the favorite of Salida's city council. According to route50.com (http://www.route50.com/history.htm), A highway, it was argued, built on Marshall would have the added advantage of not having to cross the railroad switchbacks that were on the eastern slope of Monarch Pass, part of the spur line that served the limestone quarry.
In fact, I believe the only thing Monarch Pass had going for it as the route of US 50 was...its name. Monarch was known as Monarch-Agate Pass to the state highway department and rumor has it that Charles D. Vail, the State Engineer, planned to give Monarch-Agate a much more simple and modest name...Vail Pass. Alas, it was not to be, likely because local residents objected. Instead, a crossing west of Dillon would be given that "honor." Highway 50 still went over Monarch, but without Vail's name attached to it.

Marshall Pass lost its rails in 1955; Monarch in the early 1980s. Marshall has a lonely Forest Service road built on much of the old narrow gauge roadbed while Monarch retains US 50. Had the highway been built over Marshall, it's possible the narrow gauge grade would have been obliterated by an ever-widening highway in the 60s and 70s.