America's Highest, Steepest Mainline Railroad

This was the highest and one of the steepest busy Mainline Railroads at the time in the US with 3% grades and 40,000 HP trains. With 20 trains a day see plenty of manifests, coal, taconite and others. Colorful pool power, manned helpers and great train pacing plus all the heavy, intense action in a beautiful mountain setting. Power-heavy 100 car coal trains with 9 ACs battling the high altitude and steep grades like you'll never see again. Acclaimed by critics and fans alike, this has been a best selling video featuring Southern Pacific and the Rio Grande in a never to repeated show of force.
These are all visions you can no longer see!
In 1996, UP bought Southern Pacific. UP preferred the Moffat Tunnel for routing traffic. The last revenue train went over the Tennessee Pass on August 23, 1997.
Our movie crews were there to capture the last months of operation. Coal, Manifest and merchandise trains all run by the two cameras on a journey from Pueblo to Dotsero, Colorado where the line joins with the Moffat Route. We also show early the history of regional narrow and standard gauge development and explain the DRGW operating strategies right to the end of operation. A surprise includes a solid segment on surviving DRGW power on the Southern Pacific system into the late 90's. Included are GP-30, SD-50s, SD45s, and sets of DRGW SD45t-2's pulling on steep grades. The Tennessee Pass line is closed for now but you can relive all the action in this critically acclaimed beautifully shot 90 minute documentary
amzn.to/3BHvI0C Visit the Daylight Sales Store
amzn.to/3NmjfBR Southern Pacific SP Daylight 4449 Authentic Railroad T-Shirt [4449
amzn.to/4gYgNPL Southern Pacific, Vol. 1: Daylight, Train 98-99 Hardcover - January
by Richard K. Wright (Author)
amzn.to/3NsMcvX Southern Pacific in Color, Vol. 2: Black Daylights - Black Widows Hardcover - January 1, 2002
amzn.to/3Y54OHx Bachmann Trains - 85' Smooth-Side Observation Car with Lighted Interior - Southern Pacific™ #2954 - Daylight - HO Scale
amzn.to/3YiMNGP Athearn HO Bay Window Caboose SP #1345 ATH90326 HO Rolling Stock
amzn.to/4821SzW Athearn HO Kodachrome SD-40T-2 DCC Sound #8571
amzn.to/4dFuEYj Athearn HO GP50 ATSF #3847 ATHG65833 HO Locomotives
amzn.to/4gTiQo6 Athearn HO Bay Window Caboose w/Lights/Sound SP #4675 ATHG78393
amzn.to/4ezsKd5 Bamzn.to/3ZWPE9F Bachmann Industries Union Pacific Smooth-Side Coach Car with Lighted Interior (HO Scale), 85'achman Daylight HO Train Set
amzn.to/4gSy8K1 Bachman SP GP-40
amzn.to/4gY2cnq Bachman 60 foot SP Speed Writing Boxcar
amzn.to/3NhjJJL Woodland Scenics foliage
amzn.to/3U1zicd Walthers HO F-7 ESU Sound and DCC (Grande Gold, Silver and Black)
amzn.to/3YheGPM Athearn HO RTR RS-3 D&RGW #5202 ATH28677 HO Locomotives
amzn.to/3BEe9hW Kadee Double Door RTR Rio Grande (Boxcar Red, Flying Grande)
amzn.to/4eCKrs2 Walthers Mainline 40 Foot AAR Modified Boxcar
amzn.to/3Y3fu9k Bachman track cleaning DRGW Tank Car
amzn.to/4ezsKd5 Bachman Daylight HO Train Set
amzn.to/4gSy8K1 Bachman SP GP-40
amzn.to/4gY2cnq Bachman 60 foot SP Speed Writing Boxcar
amzn.to/3NhjJJL Woodland Scenics foliage

[@charlessmileyvideos]

Here is a lengthy segment from our DVD "Tennessee Pass: from start to finish! This line is now abandoned and the story is epic. Find it at www.cspmovies.com

[@grandaddyoe1434]

An hour and a half ! What a treat ! Thank you.

[@dedog3942]

There is a train HOBO on the backside of grain car #2 at 50:47. Thats hysterical - good catch !! 😂🤭

[@kumminginyourkitty6956]

Just shows how lax they were back then. you wouldn't find them riding that close to the head end nowadays

[@64BBernard]

That's a good catch! 👍 I had to go back twice to see the guy crouching by the ladder.

[@bg104]

...another one standing in a box car at 43:10

[@johne.worsham8608]

Great program and memories of my favorite railroad of all times. R.I.P. Rio Grande: 🪦 🙏 ✝️ 😢 .

[@GaryRichardson-lt7gh]

What a tribute to a great railroad from the 70's and ended in 1988, most rail fans will always miss the tennessee pass Through the Rockies.😢😌👏👏👏

[@MaryYoungblood-xy8vg]

This is my favorite Smiley program along with Donner Pass.

[@charlessmileyvideos]

Thanks Mary, we are really fond of these 2 movies as well. SP was our favorite hands down and these lines were special. Thanks for your support these last 30 years!

[@MorrisRichter-bd5ub]

Thank you for Showing this Vidio ! 7-30-2024🎉😊

[@railyardfilms6491]

Very well showing

[@charlessmileyvideos]

Thanks we appreciate the kind words, more to come!

[@drewdoneit5578]

Sweet !!❤ Love the sound 🔊 from the TURBO, on those Prime-Movers. GEVO-ON !! my friends. Hello from Washington DC !!🎉

[@charlessmileyvideos]

Yes, the sound of old engines makes us all happy. This grade tested their horsepower and also dynamic braking!

[@mjrodriguez8670]

I really enjoyed watching this video! I visited the Royal Gorge cack in the 1990's, when I was 19 years old!

[@105C09]

It's like old times, almost. I lived in Leadville, CO in the 80's and used to go jogging down at Camp Hale and enjoyed the D&RGW make its way up the past and the helpers return to Minturn junction.

[@jamesferrell3328]

very professional Charles

[@charlessmileyvideos]

Thanks James, we try to add production value to our movies. Maps, history, music and a meaningful script to tie it all together. And then of course "Many Visions We Can No Longer See Today!

[@JohnnysTrainVideos]

I Love it... great video.

[@charlessmileyvideos]

Thanks Johnny have a super weekend!

[@O-PAC]

I hope they reactivate this line. I’d love to see train action like this return to these rails. The silence is deafening 😢

[@charlessmileyvideos]

Yes, that would be something special!

[@dupdrewww]

43:10 Love how a guys just standing on the inside of a boxcar!😂

[@charlessmileyvideos]

That is classic old school SP for sure!

[@larrybaldridge4078]

Really enjoyed the video, relived old memories

[@2dogsmowing]

There's still a couple of the narrow gage engines still alive from the D and RG days. They are at the Denver train museum. (Not positive about museum name but it's close.🤷 ) There's a guy that does KZbin channel name Hyce. He works at the museum. Good fella and good videos. Keep up the great work yourself. 😉

[@everythingiscool6228]

Golden railroad museum I think

[@2dogsmowing]

@@everythingiscool6228 that sounds a little better than my name of the museum. Lol

[@marvwatkins7029]

Notice the hobo riding in the old style, conventional box car. You're unlikely to ever see that again. I'm surprised that Charles Smiley didn't mention that.

[@Emdsd45T]

Yeah I was thinking the same thing I rode this line in 96&97 sad it’s gone that was gorgeous line to ride from Spanish fork Utah all the way to Pueblo

[@kelvintorrence5994]

the wheeling and lake erie in ohio has about 2 of them with rio grande on the sides 2day in 2024 i see them daliy

[@grandaddyoe1434]

If taconite is so dense that cars were only half-full, why were cars not filled and fewer of them made into a train ?

[@MainlineSouth]

Is it just me or is the audio a little off in this video. But nonetheless it is still a classic

[@nathaniellampman2052]

Tennessee pass grade is a steep grade but the steepest grade ive heard heard of is the Saluda grade in North Carolina

[@charlessmileyvideos]

Nathaniel, yes Saluda was the steepest at %5.0, but it was not that busy and most of the loads went downhill. Having said that it was nothing short of spectacular. The thing about TP is they ran 20-25 trains a day both directions with heavy tonnage and usually 2 sets of helpers. In the DRGW days they often used 20 GP-30 and GP-40 engines to lug one coal train in a never to repeated configuration of 7 engines on the point, 9 on the swing helper and 4 shoving the caboose!

[@nathaniellampman2052]

​@charlessmileyvideo This is a great history video about Tennessee Pass. I just said it wasn't the steepest. I really like Rio Grande Tennessee Pass. I live in Colorado and I love trains. I have seen many videos about Tennessee Pass. I used to have a VHS video from WB Video called THE RIO GRANDE TODAY. I haven't seen it at train shows on dvd only online to buy. It would be nice to see it on KZbin. It's about the last train Rio grande California zephyr from Denver. To see the Amtrak California zephyr on the moffat line. The first half is about the moffat line and the second is about Tennessee Pass. I agree with you to see 7 units on the front of a coal train and 9 midtrain helpers in the middle. I love the moffat line and Tennessee Pass. I just hate to see the Tennessee Pass just abandoned and rotting away. Why union pacific won't left BNSF take it over?

[@Greatdome99]

Siskiyou, Donner, the list goes on of grades steeper than Tennessee.

[@grandaddyoe1434]

@@charlessmileyvideos Might those twenty locos have done the job better if the train were split into ten consists with two engines each ?

[@MrDgwphotos]

Rio Grande only bought SD-40 tunnel motors.

[@corduerorose9747]

Sound like a train ate a goose 😂🤣12:32

[@charlessmileyvideos]

They did find loose feathers on the rails.

[@OKFrax-ys2op]

Only tough guys allowed on those rails

[@joshjones3408]

👍👍👍👍👍🏼👍👍👍👍👍👍👌🏼👌🏼👌🏼

[@robynecclestone7900]

Theres a school of thought that the us govt built panama to weaken the railroads. Think after 1915 who built the moffat tunnel . Why was santa fe pretty weak in 30s and grasping at diesels.and why did milwaukie road take the electric gamble.

[@robynecclestone7900]

And Moffitt was only built from four headings by exploiting an existing water tunnel. The rr wanted a shorter tunnel at higher elevation.

[@douglasengle2704]

There has been a strong move to turn the Tennessee Pass railroad into a Rail-Trail for bicycles, but at 3% grade I don't believe people are addressing how very difficult riding a bicycle at a continues grade far over 1% grade at a 3% grade and 10,000 feet altitude would be! If just a stone dust path down grade rides would likely be the only viable option and even if paved smooth riding at a continues 3% grade at 10,000 feet altitude would be extremely difficult. Going up grade would not be a relaxing bike ride and near torture. The fact that the line started out as a 3-foot narrow gauge of the Rock Mountains will attract a lot of adventure cyclists. My guess is that the Moffat rail line is faster passenger train travel into Denver than the Tennessee Pass. I wonder how the scenery rates between Grand Junction to Denver on the Moffat line verses the Tennessee Pass line? When a young teenager my Dad took us to see the Royal Gorge with the railroad track seen at the bottom. I didn't understand where we were. I remember my dad driving the car on a gravel mountain road around this area about 1975. It would seem a State sponsored tourist sightseeing train might keep the Tennessee Pass rail line in service possibly closing for the winter to avoid snow issues. Google Maps 2024-02-16 satellite view doesn't have detailed views of much of the Tennessee Pass railroad, most notably around the Royal Gorge. I'd like to see Tennessee Pass railway upgraded and used for passenger and double stack freight. It may still prove the best route in the distance future with a base tunnel avoiding the 3% grade.

[@michlo3393]

Why do all of that when you can just go to the north or to the south of it? That's the problem.

[@grandaddyoe1434]

@@michlo3393 Would a very long base tunnel (as in the Alps) be operationally and financially better than keeping the other two lines ?