Tennessee Pass (Colorado) - Railroad Line

Railroad Line

The Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad constructed a narrow gauge railroad over Tennessee Pass in 1881 as part of their extension to the Aspen area to beat the Colorado Midland Standard Gauge route to the rich mining area. In 1890, a new standard gauge line was built from Pueblo, to Grand Junction, and jointly with the Colorado Midland Railway, a tunnel was constructed about 200 ft (60 m) below the summit. In 1945, the old Tennessee Pass Tunnel was replaced by a newer tunnel. In recent times, the Rio Grande's Tennessee Pass line was the highest mainline railroad mountain pass in the United States. The line, now owned by the Union Pacific Railroad, is currently embargoed (the tracks are out of service but still in place).

Once the Moffat Tunnel and Dotsero Cutoff were constructed the Tennessee Pass subdivision became a secondary route. The Moffat Tunnel route had a maximum grade of 2%. The west side of the Tennessee Pass route has grades up to 3%. However, the east side of the Tennessee Pass has a maximum grade of only 1.4%.

When the Rio Grande merged into the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1988 the Tennessee Pass route once again became the preferred Trans-Continental route. The Southern Pacific now had a central route from California through to Kansas via Donner Pass, Tennessee Pass and trackage rights on the former MoPac route from Pueblo, Colorado into Kansas. The Moffat Tunnel route was still kept in use.

In 1996, the Union Pacific Railroad bought the Southern Pacific. The Union Pacific preferred other route for routing traffic. The last train went over the Tennessee Pass in 1997. Soon after Union Pacific ran this last train, they applied to the STB for permission to abandon the line. They pulled that application to head off the risk of being forced to sell it to another competitor.

Currently the line is not of much use to the UP as the former Mopac line to Pueblo, Colorado has been partially abandoned so trains would have to travel from Denver, Colorado down to Pueblo, Colorado before they can head west, making the route seem to be more of use to BNSF. However, it must also be taken into account that the Moffat Tunnel can only handle around 25 trains a day and has been operating at near capacity with increased coal traffic, which could turn the Tennessee Pass tracks into a supplementary route. In 2007, Union Pacific ran a ballast train onto the disused section of the line near Avon, Colorado but apart from the odd hi-rail inspections of parts of the line there is no sign of a re-opening of the Tennessee Pass line as a through route.

The 12 miles of the Tennessee Pass line through the Royal Gorge is currently owned by the Royal Gorge Route Railroad, who operates excursion trains out of Cañon City.

On July 10, 2012, part of the old tunnel collapsed, forcing the temporary closure of U.S. Route 24 between Redcliff, Colorado and Leadville, Colorado. The newer tunnel was not damaged.