#Leadville

[adventurealldays]

[20th-century-railroading]

"EB coal on the Pass"

Eastbound coal loads climb Tennessee Pass nearing the summit outside Leadville, Colorado as the mornings long shadows reach out for lead SD45 5321 back in July of 1979.

[tetramodal]

Turquoise Lake Acrylic on canvas 8x10". Charles Morgenstern, 2023. Turquoise Lake, Leadville, Colorado.

[chaletnz]

Breakfast in Denver on our way up to Copper Mountain, taco night in Passage Point, Center Village evening stroll, trip to Leadville for the Leadville Boom Days. Leadville is the highest elevation town in the USA (with its own fire department or whatever the qualifier is!)

[lame-town]

[sugarfreeaconitine]

Taking the bus in2 town 2day

[freshthoughts2020]

(THE CORNER® | OPEN MANUAL AUDIO VISUAL)

[railwayhistorical]

Tennessee Pass

An eastbound train is seen here on the Denver Rio Grande & Western line over Tennessee Pass. This specific locale is just north of Leadville, Colorado, near MP 284—Google Maps has it as Piney Gulch.

A Wisconsin Central EMD SD45 is on the point along with at least one unit from Conrail. This steep grade over the Great Divide demands a lot of horses and so there are two Southern Pacific units working hard at a mid-train position in addition to the six up front. At the time, this was the highest active mainline railroad mountain pass in the United States, but it is currently embargoed, though the tracks are still in place.

I saw a (FB) post of the pass by James Belmont today and so dug around to find these. This was never my turf, and I just happened to be there with my father, medium format camera (filled with Plux-X) in hand. I should say, those eight locomotives were screaming for all they were worth, and the train was moving at about five miles an hour.

Two images by Richard Koenig; taken in the summer of 1996.

[valhikes]

Leadville, Colorado.

This loop around Leadville features dozens of interpretive signs with facts and gossip and history about Leadville. I took it with an extra excursion up to the top of Iron Hill.

[20th-century-railroading]

"Rio Grande coal loads"

Rio Grande eastbound coal loads head toward Pueblo having just crested the grade out of Minturn and are passing Leadville, Colorado in July 1979.

[neurons-and-photons]

Cruising with the dogs on a beautiful day in Colorado

[its-warm-here]

me bein cute in leadville, co

[chaletnz]

Leadville: Scenic train ride for the autumn leaves with Eva, Korey, and Alanna

[lame-town]

[ukdamo]

Today's photo with the most hits: this Leadville, CO, school bus.

[patfster]

Leadville

August 11, 2023

There is no greater joy than to see your children supporting and loving each other.

Mell called me in July and asked if there was anyway I could go to Leadville. She said Jonny keeps saying, ¨I wish mom could be at the race.¨So I told her I would ask our area President, and he said yes.

Mel didn't tell anyone that I ws coming. I arrived after Jonny had left for the race, my plane was delayed and poor <mel had to pic me up at the airport at 1:00 am. We drove to Leadville after the kids were out of school. They are such sweet kids! When we arrived in Leadville we drove close to where the Airbnb. Mel had me duck down so no-one would see me. Jonny was outside, and he came running up and gave me a hug. We then walked to the house, and Stephen said he saw me and thought, ¨Oh there's mom.¨ By then I was in the house and as I walked in Hillary screamed, and Paul and Stephen both gave me big hugs. It felt so nice to be so welcomed. We all went to bed early because the bikers were leaving getting up at 4:00 am.

I took some pictures before the race began.

We watched them take off and jumped in the car to meet them at their first stop.

Stephen made it into the finsh line with 15 seconds to spare, we were all yelling for him and so happy that he made it under 9 hours.

Tracy and I bought silver bicycle bracelets from Taxco for me to give to them when they finished the race. What an amazing experience it was to be with my boys.