To Shiny Rails

Wait, what?! Rocks and railroading together! Yes, please. Papa and Matteo took a ride on the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic RR‘s once-a-year Geology Train today. We took all day to go 65 miles behind a steam locomotive, stopping often to hear about the geology we were looking at. There were a handful of geologists on the trip that each talked when their specialty was appropriate. We also had a railroader aboard that shared some info in that regard.

Our California friends may find it interesting to know that much of the geology in this area (south central Colorado and northern New Mexico) was created by the same structure and event that made for much of California’s geology – the subduction of one of the Pacific tectonic plates under the North American plate. As the subducting plate moved east, similar events continued to occur. The front range of the Rockies is about as far east as the affects of this subduction went.

Over the millenia, the San Luis Valley of Colorado was subject to various episodes of compression, extension, and volcanism. There was an ancient Alamosa Lake that extended over the entire valley up to 200 feet deep that also contributed to the rocks and stratigraphy of the area. Volcanism was the most recent regional phenomenon about 35 million years ago. The “cap rock” in many areas are welded tuff, lavas, or the like.

Beneath that volcanics layer is a very much older formation. This makes for a “Great Unconformity” (a huge missing time period between layers). In this case, the underlying Pre-Cambrian rocks are over 1.6 billion years older than the layer immediately above. For comparison, the unconformity often noted at the Grand Canyon is likely less than 500 million years. The older Pre-Cambrian mountains of the area were completely inundated by the younger volcanic activity (about 35 million years ago). We walked through these 1.6+ billion year old rocks when we walked through the tunnel toward the end of the trip.

Coming down Cumbres Pass into Chama, New Mexico it was recent (geologically speaking) glacier activity that contributed to much of what is seen. The railroad grade down the first part of this descent is 4%! The Cumbres Pass is just over 10,000 feet high making it the highest operating railroad pass in the U.S.

We crossed the Colorado/New Mexico border eleven times along the route!

All the photos are here.

Almost entirely by accident, we ended up at the right place and the right time to catch the #4014 and #844 leaving Ogden for the return to Cheyenne! Lynn became an official train chaser when she dashed across a busy road with crutches and her broken foot to catch a glimpse of the passing train.

I joined who knows how many thousand (Spike150 estimated 38,000 people visited May 10-12) of my railroading friends today at Promontory Summit, UT to celebrate the 150th Anniversary of the Golden Spike that marked the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad on May 10, 1869. (Unless you’re from Strasburg, CO which tends to argue the point; they’ll have their 150th at Comanche Crossing on August 15, 2020. That’s just up the road from us, so we’re going!)

As with yesterday’s fun at Union Station in Ogden, UT with the arrival of the Big Boy UP #4014 and her traveling companion, UP #844, there were so many people that I couldn’t get much in the way of great pictures of either the equipment or even what was happening on stage. So, the photos here give you a feel for what attending the event looked like. I’m sure there will be plenty of closeup shots on social media from those who were close up. All my pics from the day are here.

The ceremony turned out to have quite the list of dignitaries, including Utah Governor Herbert, U.S. Secretary of the Interior, U.S. Secretary of Transportation (whom we worked with back when she was at Labor and I was with the California Space Authority), Mitt Romney, Rep. Bishop, Lance Fritz of the UPRR, the Irish ambassador to the U.S. (who offered a champagne toast!), the Chinese ambassador to the U.S. (by video), and more.

Part of the reason for so many dignitaries is that the Golden Spike National Historical Site recently was upgraded to a full-fledged National Historical Park.

The keynote was given by author Jon Meacham, and without a doubt, gave the best speech of the day. If a recording gets posted anywhere, I’ll hook it in here. My favorite quote, roughly, “a country is unified by its passion for what we love in common.”

Did you know that on that very day in 1869, the real last spike (not the golden ceremonial spikes) and rail were wired to the telegraph system so that the world could actually “hear” the completion of the railroad. #DONE

Interesting map showing why Promontory Summit is no longer on the existing rail line.

Did you notice that 5/10 (May 10th) and Spike150 share the same digits?

The latest effort by the UP Steam Team is UP’s #4014, Big Boy. And I got to be in Ogden, UT today to welcome her to town and essentially open the Spike150 celebration. If you want to see great images of the Big Boy and sister UP #844, particularly as they make their way from Cheyenne, WY to Ogden, UT, check out the UP Steam Club Facebook page.

The rest of my pics from the day are here. They’re mostly about the event and the sites of Ogden, particularly near Ogden’s Union Station (which houses the Utah State Railroad Museum, by the way).

#DONE.

Papa, AJ, David, and Jonathan made a trip downtown to see the model railroad done by the Pikemasters Model Railroad Club.

There was a train show at the Chapel Hills Mall today; who could resist! TECO stands for Train Expo Colorado, and as the name suggests, they do shows like this across Colorado. It was better than I expected. About 1/2 the floor space was operating layouts, the rest was vendor tables (including a guy selling full-size windows). I expected fewer layouts but was pleasantly surprised.

The Susquehanna boxcar (N scale) took me back to where both my parents went to school, Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove, PA. It’s along a river by the same name, Susquehanna River. I bought it for $10.

There’s still a railroad with the name it: the New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway.