Been there, done that. "The phone's for you..." Minturn, CO's D&RGW crew dorm is the backdrop for the old phone box. I didn't ask what use the facility serves today, but I'm guessing low-income housing?
With the cost of housing in the Vail/Eagle Valley, nothing is "low-income". I bet it goes for a pretty penny.
I got off and on a few trains here. I gotta say when we struggled up to Glenwood with 4 tunnel units on a 105 coal load, added 2 SD's that made the short turn down form Minturn, cut their power in ahead of 17 from the rear, then clawed our way up the Shoshone grade in GW canyon and finally got off the train at Minturn, We could feel and hear them add 6-7 more SD's mid train, it was quite a show and a seismic event of sorts, to feel the power it took to get that tonnage moving, I mean they were all "manned swing and rear help" it was a sight to see, I mean those guys went from idle to 8 throttle in a few seconds, and they stayed there for a while. I feel very fortunate to have been on the RR for the last of DC and beginning of AC power. The one thing you could always count on was D&RGW power to pull their rated tonnage. No offense to my SP friends but the one thing you could count on from SP power is at least one to be DIC by the time we made it to Minturn. I mean I remember hearing dead engine bells before we had all the draw-bars stretched out in the yard in GJ.
That little hooded thing was called a bungalow, you could simply pick up the phone a talk to the dispatcher, and that came in kinda handy sometimes I'll tell you. Like getting permission to enter the main track between switches and stuff. A few could access long distance lines, and that got cut off after many hours of certain 800#'s were billed that particular asset has been gone for a while now. As far as the crew dorms there in Minturn, when you woke up, usually from another departing train, shortly after you went to sleep (public grade crossing right beside your rooms) when you woke up on your single bed and put your feet on the floor, that was the bathroom, no TV, no phone, no temperature control, a cinder block closet sized space, with no closet, it was just the way it was, dont want to sound ungrateful, just the way it was. I can remember going down to the turntable restaurant, going past Betty counting her $$ for the 4th or 5th time, as well as the image of a D&RGW L-131 in the turntable pit. After that is a whole nother story. I dont know what the rooms are used for nowadays.
From 08/17/2002 in Atlanta, GA, twin GE AC-4400CWs are working hard. The bungalow reads "Top Of Slide", marking the location of a particularly notorious curving grade of 3.2% that descends into the former L&N (ex-NC&StL) Tilford Yard. Maximum speed downgrade as governed by timetable is 8 MPH, with braking rules covered in great detail. I'm not sure what exists here today. Tilford is gone, a recent victim of Precision Scheduled Railroading.
Just like here. With all flooding in of the virus refugees, homes which were 250K, (just over one year ago!), with some room for haggling downward, are now 650K with skyrocketed (idiotic) bidding wars.
Maybe it's UP's way of taking up the space normally used by vandals doing their squiggly thing. The mere fact that the big "UP" is actually legible tends to support that...
In what is arguably the most beautiful scenery for a railroad on earth, the now-silent Tennessee Pass route reaches dizzying elevations exceeding 10,000 feet, passing through incredible gorges as well as wide mountain valleys. Colorado's highest peaks ring the valley east of Malta, CO near Crystal Lakes.
I went back to my winter image and zoomed in a bit. They repainted the door on the metal building since 2010. The old passenger depot in on the right.
While we are on the subject of the Tennessee Pass Route. Here are a few more images from February 2010. The west portal at the summit tunnel. Bridge over Gore Creek where it empties into the Eagle River along Interstate 70 below Vail. https://www.google.com/maps/@39.608...ChfH3qpNMXrrSQqu59GA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en
I zoomed past all that--I wish I had spent the time to explore from west Minturn to Wolcott where I peeled off onto CO-131.
Up close and personal with CP 6644-McGregor, IA CP 6644 slows down to meet B39 at Eckhards on the mainline. CP Marquette Sub Train 576(loaded oil train) August 8, 2021 Most people get drunk, others want sex but as for me, I go Railfanning.
I'm in the dark here. It sounds as if you are being sarcastic and the angry looking emoticon reinforces that idea, but I'm genuinely clueless. What are they for?
