08-22-2013, 08:42 AM
lajry Wrote:Isn't Rock & Rail is the RR that does all the switching between Canon City & Pueblo CO on the old DRGW (now UP) Tennessee Pass line?
It's not the Tennessee Pass line - it's the Royal Gorge Route. Trains haven;t gone up to Leadville in decades.
UP doesn't own the trackage through the Gorge anymore; they sold it to the Royal Gorge Scenic Railroad many years ago, and with the closure of the Canon City coal-fired power plant, and with the Cotter uranium refinery long out of business UP no longer has any reason to use the tracks anyway. RGR owns the tracks form Canon City to Parkdale at the western end of the gorge.
The ironic thing is that UP just spent a small fortune putting in new grade crossings and crossing signals all the way through Canon City on tracks they aren't even using.