Showing posts with label Mike Danneman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mike Danneman. Show all posts

Sunday, September 18, 2022

San Luis & Rio Grande Railroad May Have A Buyer But Questions Remain

San Luis & Rio Grande Railroad steam engine number 1744 steams lit up by the rising sun as it continues eastbound up and out of the San Luis Valley of southern Colorado, USA
SL&RG 1744 steams eastward into the sunrise toward La Veta Pass
Photo by Mike Danneman
After an auction ordered earlier this summer by a bankruptcy judge, the San Luis & Rio Grande Railroad, operating for years without an owner in the San Luis Valley, may actually have new life and a new owner. Officials are quick to stress that nothing is final or binding, but the details are being ironed out with long-time Great Western Railway of Colorado owner OmniTrax

Another company, North Central Railcorp headed by Friends of the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad, Inc. President Tim Tennant, has indicated its interest to Roni Wisdom, Alamosa County Administrator, and should be working with the court and trustees, says Alamosa News

Hopefully, in OmniTrax we have a clear winner. Even if we do, the possibility exists that if OmniTrax fails in the San Luis Valley, it could file to abandon the historic branch like it did recently. According to AlamosaNews.com

On Aug. 9, 2019 – just three years after purchasing the line – OmniTrax and CTXR petitioned STB to abandon the line, citing the loss of millions of dollars in acquiring and operating the line and asserting the cost of continuing to maintain and operate the line far outweighed the potential revenue from shippers. STB approved the petition, and the line was abandoned.

That is not to say that the San Luis & Rio Grande Railroad would be in the same boat as the Central Texas and Colorado River (CTXR) Railroad, which was purchased by OmniTrax on the assumption demand for fracking sand would drive their railroad's profitability. When the demand didn't materialize in 2017, the railroad stalled. The San Luis & Rio Grande has the demand already in hand.

The rising sun glints off the special photo freight of the SL&RG
Photo by Mike Danneman
One question would be whether OmniTrax, if awarded the sale, can couple the existing demand for the valley's agriculture with its existing business model of rail-driven real estate. Having a client commit to using OmniTrax in the San Luis Valley would settle a lot of nerves. So would public funding or tax breaks to spur new business growth. But no one can expect either to show up on demand.

On the other hand, one thing is certain: If SL&RG were to shut down for any reason, Coors' Rocky Mountain barley and other clients' products would be forced over La Veta Pass via US 160, and I know from personal experience the highway would never handle such a load without tens or hundreds of millions of dollars spent to improve it. Thus, the San Luis & Rio Grande Railroad had better keep those steel wheels rolling, whatever happens. We can't afford for it to stop. ⚒


Tuesday, March 13, 2018

POTD - BN Caboose Two Miles High

Photo of the Day: Mike Danneman
It is 1984, and the Climax local has just returned to the two-mile high city of Leadville under threat of rain from a July cloudburst overhead. Winter snows still cling to Mount Elbert above the covered hopper and Mount Massive (at far right), the two highest peaks in Colorado. The summer storm belies the fact that summer, if it comes at all, is far too brief at this altitude to make much of an impact. Nevertheless, as noted photographer Mike Danneman notes, this line survives as the Leadville, Colorado & Southern, a summer tourist railroad in business long after the neighboring Tennessee Pass Route has fallen silent.

The isolated segment of the Burlington Northern system, 150 rail miles from its nearest connection at Pueblo, is still generating revenue many decades after coming into the fold of Colorado & Southern as part of the Denver, South Park & Pacific Railroad. To get there, the DSP&P climbed from Como in South Park over the Continental Divide at Boreas Pass, down through Breckenridge and Frisco before heading up over Fremont Pass (and the Continental Divide, again). Such up and down, north and south wanderings are why they had such turbulent corporate histories and why Colorado narrow gauge railroads are so beloved. ⚒

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

POTD - Right At Home In the Tunnel District

Would you believe it's been 10 years since Colorado Railroads - www.corailroads.com - began? I wouldn't have realized it but for the fact that the Rio Grande Heritage Unit produced commissioned by Union Pacific is 10 years old next month. What a great job they did on that design! Having met the designers at the unveiling, I was pleased to tell them that they really did a great job capturing the feel of a very diverse railroad with a solid and, I believe, unifying design that, as far as I'm concerned, would look great in a production run! It's the least Union Pacific could do, considering how seldom the locomotive seems to make it through Colorado.

At home
Photo of the Day: Mike Danneman

Mike Danneman captured the vagabond UP 1989 when the notch-nosed, brawny SD-70ACe was leading a comparatively grimey sister ACe. Mr. Danneman said the UP Heritage Unit "looks right at home exiting Tunnel 29 east of Pinecliffe, Colorado," heading east over former D&RGW territory in the Moffat Road's Tunnel District on July 10, 2006.◊

Friday, February 13, 2015

POTD: Big Ten in '15

Perhaps no place better symbolizes the challenge faced by railroads heading west from Denver than Big Ten Curve located on the former Denver & Salt Lake Railroad as it climbs from the western suburbs toward the low foothills of the Front Range. Almost as if nature or nature's God knew what was needed for David H. Moffat's railroad to reach the lowest rung of the Rockies, a low mesa juts out of the ramparts just south of Rocky Flats.

Big 10 Curve from the southwest
Photo of the Day: Mike Danneman
Today's Photo of the Day, from seasoned veteran photographer Mike Danneman, shows a BNSF manifest freight descending the Big Ten Curve towards Denver using BNSF's trackage rights over the Union Pacific's Moffat Route. Mr. Danneman managed to capture this photo only earlier this week with a couple of warm days that afforded him and his associate Rich Farewell unusual mid-winter access to a hiking trail overlooking Big Ten. It is likely this same trail that afforded Ralph Parsons almost the identical exposure for Robert A. LaMassena's signature work, Colorado's Mountain Railroads.

In the caption for Parsons' photograph, Robert LaMassena says of Big Ten,
Perhaps the most difficult location was the transition from the western end of the prairie to the eastern foot of the Rocky Mountains. This was accomplished by wrapping the track around a small mesa to form a bent hairpin curve. Six miles of track lay between two points only 1 1/2 miles apart, on the ground, but displaced vertically 600 feet.
In 2015, Big Ten is a convergence of geography, technology and more than a century of railroad men and machines working to lift countless tons from prairie to the crest of the continent!◊

Friday, September 19, 2014

POTD: Brawny Muscle At Mitchell On Tennessee Pass

Perhaps nowhere--at least not in the last 40 years--is the idea of railroading in Colorado more realized than Tennessee Pass. A former narrow gauge route surveyed as a way to reach the riches of Leadville's mines and supply them, punched through the summit with a tunnel bore and classic lopsided profile of 1.7% grade on one side and 3% on the other, Tennessee Pass runs right through the heart of the state and until the Union Pacific merger in 1996, served with distinction as the highest mainline in the nation.

Tennessee Pass at SP’s best
Photo of the Day: Mike Danneman
A whopping ten units on Tennessee Pass pull and shove their coal train up 3% grade at Mitchell, Colorado, September 5, 1995. With new AC4400CW and two manned helper sets, Mr. Danneman says, "This was Tennessee Pass at SP’s best!" It's hard to disagree, Mike.◊

PS: For those interested, Fred Frailey (one of the best) writes about the Long Autumn of Tennessee Pass in his blog at Trains magazine (2012).

Friday, August 29, 2014

POTD: Summer Fun Via the Summer Ski Train

The Ski Train, that wonderful but lost Denver institution, once ferried Denverites and not just a few tourists to the mountains of Winter Park every winter for a day of skiing. It also ran during the summer, giving harried and heated residents some nature and natural air conditioning by ascending to the high country where the air is always a bit cooler. Sadly, in 2009, it all ended.* Nonetheless, in the waning years, the F40 engines and a matched consist made for a beautiful and glorious sight!

Ski Train
Photo of the Day: Mike Danneman
If the trees in the background look familiar, they should because yesterday's photo of the day was shot at nearly the same location. The Ski Train is pointing east toward the still rising sun while westbound toward the Moffat Tunnel and Winter Park on July 31, 2004, just 10 years ago. The brilliance of the Ski Train's aspen gold and silver looks just as fine as ever it did on the Rio Grande F7s and F9s. "In a few moments," Mr. Danneman says, "it will be traveling through Clay on the upper track at the top of the photo." You may need to click the photo to view it full size to discern the grade.


Thursday, August 28, 2014

POTD - Morning Rays Make Magic Even More Rare On UP Westbound

The rising sun is one of the best ways to color your photographs. During maybe a  half-hour at most, the sun shining through more of the atmosphere than any other part of the day as a natural filter, bathing everything in a golden, almost fiery glow. This is especially true on the Front Range because mountain shadows make evening shots with that natural glow next to impossible.

Aiming into the morning sun
Photo of the Day: Mike Danneman

Trains magazine Sept 2014
Mike Danneman is no stranger to POTD. Also his brother Tom Danneman had a single-photo, double-page spread on pages 36 and 37 (sample at right) in September's Trains magazine. So you might say it runs in his blood. His consistently good work has him sitting near rock star-status (if there is such a thing in the railroad photography world). Why are rock stars famous? Because they take something that is difficult and make it look easy. Today's Photo of the Day is a perfect example.

The Union Pacific sends its track inspection car over the Rio Grande's Moffat Route from Denver. Fair enough, except that the Moffat is west of Denver, putting the locomotives and the train heading west in the morning in their own shadows. But Mr. Danneman has shot the Moffat often enough to know that, in a quest for altitude, the track layers of over a century ago reversed direction to run the rail around the tongue of a mesa. This reversal is now called Little Ten Curve and Big Ten Curves, ten referring to their curvature. In that one spot, the westbound train would be facing geographic east. Be there at the right time and the rays of the sun will bathe the yellow train in a golden glow! Mike met the train in that 30 minute window and we see the magic results. 

He makes it look easy.◊

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

POTD: Shamrocks, Clovers, Three Days Are Over

Mike Danneman, whose photos are 3 for 3 this week on POTD, has delivered a fine string from his flickr account. The St. Patrick's Day theme this week has been pretty fun ...for me, at least! Monday, the obvious connection was the green locomotive. Tuesday was less obvious with Rio Grande's last 3 locomotives pulling together as a single unit, a subtle nod to Patrick's use of a shamrock (similar to clover) to teach the concept of the Trinity to his friends. Today, it's even more obscure for those who don't know their Irish lore.

Snaking through Browns Canyon
Southern Pacific never looked better than August 1, 1999, squeezing between rockfall fencing
and rafters intent on enjoying Browns Canyon and the Arkansas in the short summer season.
Photo: Mike Danneman

Yes, in one of the crueler changes of the UP-SP merger (also mentioned all 3 days, unintentionally), the snaking coal drags and other serpentine trains that plied the Tennessee Pass route have vanished. Tennessee Pass was the original standard gauge route "Thru the Rockies" before the acquisition of the Denver & Salt Lake by the Rio Grande and it's official merger in 1947.

Today's photo is perhaps as exceptional as they come. Thank you, Mr. Danneman, for sharing these with us!◊

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

POTD: 3 In A Row - The Rio Grande GP60's

In his second appearance this week for POTD, Mike Danneman is an accomplished railroad photographer whose work shows up in books and Trains magazine with enough regularity that many photographers might envy him. Of course, he has a way of being in the right place at the right time!

All three
GP60s 3156, 3154, & 3155 lead SP and UP locomotives head north toward Blue Mountain Crossing
between the Big Ten curves and Tunnel 1 west of Denver on its way to Salt Lake City, Utah.
Photo: Mike Danneman

As an example, he captured today's Photo of the Day in the foothills west of Denver as the three GP60s of the Rio Grande--the last locomotive units ever--hauled the Denver to Roper (Salt Lake City) manifest train up the grade toward the Moffat Tunnel on the old Denver & Salt Lake. In an interesting twist, it would seem a the six locomotives formed a recapitulation of 60 years (roughly) of the Rio Grande's ownership history with itself, Southern Pacific and Union Pacific. Regrettably, all three locomotives have been repainted or renumbered, per Utah Rails, but all are still active within the last year.

There is no doubt that it's a late 90s Denver skyline, is there?◊

Monday, March 17, 2014

POTD: St. Patrick's Day Green Cruises By On The Moffat Road

BN and March 17th seem to go together, don't you think? In this case, Mike Danneman captured a surviving BN locomotive in Cascade Green on the long ramp of a grade toward the Flat Irons and the Moffat Tunnel. As a direct result of the UP-SP merger, BNSF obtained trackage rights over the Moffat Road and since then has sent a remarkable quantity of trains via that route.

Pass at Rocky
Spartan-nosed BN 7062, an EMD SD40-2, leads it's Stockton-based consist through Rocky, passing
a Union Pacific coal drag with it's distributed power visible behind the derail stand on Oct 1 1999.
Photo: Mike Danneman
No stranger to trackage rights, BN had long enjoyed the fruits of it's agreement with the Rio Grande for a connection between Denver and it's southern Colorado assets along the Joint Line. Now with well over 15 years on the route, BNSF's colors appear to be on the Moffat to stay.◊