Perhaps the most extreme section of railroad built in the
United States was the climb to the 11,660’ saddle at Rollins Pass on the Denver
Northwestern & Pacific Railroad, “The Moffat Road”. The 23
mile passage of Rollins pass was one of the highest adhesion railroads in the
world. Brilliantly utilizing long proven
Civil Engineering techniques it employed a series of reverse curves on a 2%
grade at the beginning of the assault, in Toland Colorado, to form a series of
steps called “The Giant’s Ladder” sprawling across the mountain side. A much
reduced version, Whiplash Curves, is still in use at Mile Post 295.5 on the
Cumbres and Toltec.
Beyond the “Ladder” a brief interlude with two reverse curves
within a wooded area and around a small lake set the stage for an impressive final assault on the pass
using an unheard of, for standard gauge, 4% grade through a narrow granite
spine, "Needle’s Eye Tunnel", which exited a breathtaking 2,000’ feet above South
Boulder Creek Canyon. The traverse to the Pass from this point
employed two consecutive trestles let into scree and hard rock of a near wall at
a place named “Devil's Slide”. Though now
closed, G and I drove this road many times in the early years of our marriage.  |
| Devil's Slide - Current |
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| Devil's Slide 40 years ago |
An extensive network of rails and service structures, including
a Hotel, were all housed within a massive snowshed. This arrangement was to be temporary until a
tunnel under the mountain could be bored; the “temporary” arrangement lasted
nearly 30 years until the completion of the Moffat Tunnel.
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| Fighting snow on Rollins (Corona) Pass |
Fighting snow was the undoing of the railroad and in time it
entered bankruptcy but, with the completion of the tunnel the property became a
prime target of its chief competitor the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad. The D&RGW acquired the DNW&P, which
was then called The Denver & Salt Lake Railroad, shortly after completion
of the tunnel. With the storied
D&RGW now long absorbed into the Union Pacific the roadbed and tunnel of
the “Moffat Road” continue in use to this day by both the Union Pacific and
BNSF railroads. Undoubtedly the most
beautiful journey on the AMTRAK is the California Zephyr which traverses the
Moffat Road twice daily.
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| Inside Corona Snowshed |
In the early days railroading was a tough and dangerous
business. At the end of a winter shift train
crews would gather round a warm stove drinking coffee and telling stories. Sometimes serious and often funny the one
that follows when told resulted in raucous laughter – I don’t know the names so
all I can relate is the framework.
First a little background: the setting for the story is winter within the snow sheds on Corona (Rollins Pass) at 11,600'+. They were notorious for
filling with smoke, steam, noxious gasses and ash because the sheds had few
vents in the roof. Now the story:
An eastbound freight stopped in the shed with the caboose
well within the confines. The conductor
was comfortable with a warm fire in his stove and a cup of coffee to drink.
In the darkness a second eastbound freight slowly drifted into
the smoke filled shed and coupled into the caboose housing the conductor. Because of the dense smoke the engineer of
the second locomotive could not see the lead train, thus he continued to ease
the train forward which slowly folded the caboose like an accordion.
The conductor in a panic realized the rear platform of the
caboose was collapsing and rushed to the front of the caboose only to find the
way out blocked on both sides. The only
alternative was to slide between to the collapsing cars to a space between the
rails as the slowly collapsing caboose and the freight car directly ahead also
started to fold-up.
So it went with the conductor recumbent between the rails as
the locomotive of train #2 continued to crush cars until the engineer finally
realized what was happening and cut off the steam. The firebox of the locomotive was then directly
above the unfortunate conductor.
As the conductor breathed a sigh of relief at not being
squashed a hot coal fell out of the locomotive firebox and landed on his
chest. It burned through his jacket,
coveralls and shirt and then into his chest where his blood extinguished the
coal.
End of story and everyone laughed riotously at how funny it
was.
FUNNY – WERE THEY MAD?
To those early day trainmen this was a funny story because the
conductor, who was the object of derision and was likely sharing a cup of coffee
during the joke, survived; a tough life indeed.
