Fs climbing Tennessee Pass - a photo on Flickriver

            Rio Grande’s Malta turn grinds past at Mitchell Colorado, while climbing Tennessee Pass in July 1984. There’s a story that took place after passage of the train. We were camping on the pass and in search of the F9s in freight service. A day or two previous, Mel Patrick let us know that the F-units were going through Parachute, Colorado, with a ballast train. We headed out that way and after a long wait, a headlight and spot of yellow appeared on the horizon. We were soon disappointed by the passage of a Sperry rail detector car!

Now camped at Mitchell with my VW bus, our sleep was disturbed by the chant of 567s working hard up the 3% grade of the pass before sunrise. Sleepy-eyed, we watched and photographed with Kodachrome and Ektachrome 64 what we could of the three Aspen gold and silver Fs passing by on the turn.

We packed up camp as quickly as possible, and scrambled into the VW for a chase over the pass. I turned the key—and nothing… Tried it again—still nothing… We were dead in the water as the train growled toward a 10,221-foot elevation. That night, my brother Tom and I slept in a tent, while other brother Mark slept in the bus. He mentioned listening to the radio all night, so I’m sure I pretty much blamed him for the dead battery, even though the 1979 bus probably needed a new one anyway. The high elevation probably sucked the final juice out of the thing. While trying to figure out what to do, Mark decides to walk toward Leadville, probably to get away from the uncomfortable mood in camp—hell, we were going to miss the Fs! Our camping spot at Mitchell was a bit off the main road and up a hill to a rocky cut.  For anyone familiar with Mitchell, you’ve probably been there. How was I going to get a dead VW bus started from here?

After pounding dirt for a while, I realized I had art supplies in the bus from selling prints at Railfair in Denver the previous weekend. I made a sign that read, “Jumper cables?” using a piece of cardboard and a fat black marker. No sooner than I got back to camp from walking the sign to the highway, and a big Cadillac pulls in up the hill with jumper cables. It didn’t take long, and we soon had the VW started.

Tom and I headed toward Leadville where I planned to get a new battery installed. We picked up Mark, still walking along Highway 24 near an old abandoned cabin just east (south) of the pass. Yes, he was ready for something to drink. We headed straight to Leadville and a service station that would install a battery, but it would take some time and wouldn’t be ready until the next day. So much for the Rio Grande Fs. These two shots are the only images we got of them working in freight service, and unfortunately, the sun wasn’t up yet! We never saw them the rest of the trip. Such is life…

We did spend that afternoon on foot in Leadville, photographing BN’s turn arriving from Climax with an SD9, two cars and a caboose, so all was not lost.

Taken in: United States / Colorado / Eagle (show map)

Taken on: July 1, 1984

Tags:

Rio Grande

Denver and Rio Grande Western

EMD

GP40-2

covered wagons

F-unit

Mitchell

Colorado

Tennessee Pass

dawn

morning

locomotive

freight train

Malta turn « less

Sets appears in: • EMD’s E and F units • Rio Grande more » • Tennessee Pass route • Colorado « less

Groups appears in: • Colorado! • American Rails more » • Colorado Trains • Quality and Exceptional Railway Photographs • Railfan Atlas « less

Camera: Nikon SUPER COOLSCAN 5000 ED (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Nikon SUPER COOLSCAN 5000 ED
Color Space:	Unknown (-1)
Software:	Adobe Photoshop CS3 Macintosh
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