7th Street Shops - Romley; An Historical Overview - Post 31

 

St. Elmo late 1890s; depot at left edge (above the turntable) with the 1164 sq. ft.freight building along the Aspen Spur (added to 1894 B&B listings). View looking up East Chalk Creek toward Tincup Pass. Romley was up the valley to the left - Poole Collection

The Denver South Park & Pacific Railroad (D.S.P. & P. or South Park) reached Forest City (St. Elmo) at the confluence of Chalk Creek and East Chalk Creek on 31 December 1880. The rails were in a construction race to reach the rich gold fields of the Gunnison River Valley; Gunnison, Crested Butte, Lake City and the San Juan region beyond. As the "Pacific" in the herald implied, the South Park had ambitious goals set for itself. Immediately in front of their efforts was the Saguache ("sah-watch") Range - the Continental Divide. 

From the former D.S.P.&P.R.R. right of way near Nathop, Mt. Princeton at 14,204 feet, towers more than 5,000 feet above the Arkansas Valley. The Chalk Creek District is through the gap at left.   Princeton shoulders Chalk Creek on the north and Mt. Antero (14,271 feet) shoulders (out of view) on the right . Beyond is the Divide of the North American Continent and Alpine Tunnel. Carrol Weiss Photo, 1942 - Poole Collection.

Work on the Alpine Tunnel under Altman Pass (renamed Helmers Pass) had already begun. This pass, yet 8 miles up hill from St. Elmo, was a relatively low point in the ridge The area at the top of Tunnel Gulch had been intensely and meticulous surveys throughout 1879. Excavation started on 9 January 1880. There was great expectation that the tunnel would be completed even before track reached Altman and that the South Park would handily beat the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad (D.&R.G.) into Gunnison. However, when track arrived at St. Elmo, tunnel work was already 6 months behind. A train would not pass through until July of 1882 (an engine went through in Dec. 1881.) and the D.&R.G. reached Gunnison in August 1881.

Beyond the farthest ridge (Mt. Antaro) is the Arkansas River (25 miles east, 4000 feet down), the camera was a few hundred feet above Atlantic (east portal, Alpine Tunnel) and mere yards from the Continental Divide. Romley is at the center of this view. Pomeroy Peak rises to the right - Poole photo 1985

The elevation at the apex inside the tunnel was 11,524 feet and only about 500 feet below the pass. The tunnel was 1772 feet long but measured as 1780 feet daylight to daylight in March, 1900. At the east portal (Atlantic) the track entered on a 24 degree curve that turned more than 90 degrees to the left  Geographically, the tunnel is aligned north to south.

Jackson Photo Special (Engine 42 with sleeper) stopped just beyond Pacific in the small hanging valley named Alpine. William H. Jackson took this view not long after the first train passed through the Tunnel on 19 July 1882 - W. H. Jackson Photo, Poole Collection.

View directly before the train in the photo above. Poole Photo 2005

If you need more details about the Alpine Tunnel a good place to start would be Dow Helmers' "The Alpine  Tunnel". Also, "The D.S.P.& P" by Mac Poor and Colorado R.R. Museum "Rail Annal No. 12" (Cornelius Hauch). There are many more publications in both books and magazines that are excellent resources for this and much more about the railroad. . 

The South Park gauged the rails at what Coloradoans (note the CORRECT  spelling of that noun!!) call Colorado Standard Gauge - 36" between the rails. (The rails were 30lbs to the yard.) This diminutive sizing was intended to reduce the costs of building a railroad in the Colorado Rockies where the motto was; "around the rocks, not through them". But this Tunnel - which was the only tunnel on the entire narrow gauge system for nearly 70 year of history - was an unavoidable exception, given the company goals.

In the distance, Brittle Silver Basin and the head waters of Quartz Creek. The railroad climbed out of the valley where it passed The Palisades and crossed the Toll Road down from Williams Pass. Poole Photos - 2005

During 1881, the South Park pushed the track work as fast as the crews could lay it; they reached the tunnel in mid October 1881. When grading reached the Tunnel several months earlier, it provided a direct supply route to the construction site.  The construction companies used the grade as a wagon road for transportation ahead of the track as it was built.

Of course, this wasn't the only road into Tunnel Gulch. For many years prospectors had traipsed all over the district. Some of the trails they created or "developed" from the natives became wagon roads and eventually a toll road was built from Forrest City (St. Elmo) up Chalk Creek. It crossed the Continental over Williams pass. On its decent into Quartz Creek, this Alpine & South Park Toll Road was crossed by the railroad grade just above the feature known as "The Palisades" (a vertical rock formation that rises several hundred feet above the grading). Supplies via the Toll Road could be forwarded up grade from the crossing into Alpine, the small hanging valley that is the location of the Tunnel's Pacific portal.

On the Atlantic side there was a road from the Toll Road westward up Tunnel Gulch but the construction camp was still hundreds of feet above the creek and the road.

Supplies were also packed over Altman Pass from Atlantic construction site.When the bore finally broke through, the arrival of the grading at Atlantic improved the supply to both construction camps from the east portal. .

View from above the railroad grade at Romley, looking north and down grade. The Pomeroy Bridge is located just beyond where the road disappears. Poole Photo - 1987

In the next post we will continue the overview of Chalk Creek and in particular Romley. This series of post is relative to Post 8.