Some history (copied from Wikipedia): The Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad constructed a narrow gauge railroad over Tennessee Pass in 1881, first as a branch line to access mines near Red Cliff, but by the mid 1880s the line became part of its extension to the Aspen area constructed in order to beat the Colorado Midland's standard gauge route to the rich mining area. In 1890, a new standard gauge line was built from Pueblo, to Grand Junction, and jointly with the Colorado Midland Railway, a tunnel was constructed about 200 ft (61 m) below the summit. In 1945, the old Tennessee Pass Tunnel was replaced by a newer tunnel. In recent times, the Rio Grande's Tennessee Pass line was the highest active mainline railroad mountain pass in the United States. The line, now owned by the Union Pacific, is currently out of use but the tracks remain in place. Once the Moffat Tunnel and Dotsero Cutoff were constructed, the line through Tennessee Pass became a secondary route. The Moffat Tunnel route had a maximum grade of 2%. The west side of the Tennessee Pass route has grades up to 3%. However, the east side of the Tennessee Pass has a maximum grade of only 1.4%. Southern Pacific’s (SP) acquisition by The Denver & Rio Grande in 1988 made Tennessee Pass once again the preferred transcontinental route. SP had a central route from California through to Kansas via Donner Pass, Tennessee Pass and trackage rights on the former Missouri Pacific route from Pueblo, Colorado into Kansas. The Moffat Tunnel route was kept in use. In 1996, UP bought Southern Pacific. UP preferred the Moffat Tunnel for routing traffic.[4] The last revenue train went over the Tennessee Pass on August 23, 1997. Soon after UP ran this last train, they applied to the Surface Transportation Board for permission to abandon the line. Currently, the line is not of much use as the former Missouri Pacific line to Pueblo has been partially abandoned so trains would have to travel from Denver south to Pueblo before heading west. The 12 mi (19 km) of the Tennessee Pass line through the Royal Gorge is currently operated by the Royal Gorge Route Railroad, who operates excursion trains out of Cañon City. ------------------ Locomotives used for the line included EMD GP9s, GP30s, GP35s, and GP40s. ----------------- The line has long been dormant but I feel it's a good candidate for the game, between the beautiful mountain scenery of Colorado, and the challenging grades of rail.
Would be a beautiful run for sure but, 1. DTG would need to overcome their hiatus for both US freight railroads and anything more than slightly historical. 2. Traffic levels likely to make this another Cane Creek so as opposed to doing the actual Moffat route (same DTG caveats applied) is likely to score low on their LAMPOIL assessment.
The D&RGW GP30 would be cool to see. I'd still want an SD40T-2, SD50, GP40(-2), and SD9 "Cadillac," along with an SW1200 for yard duties. I would prefer the Moffat route over this, but I agree that the scenery is pretty spectacular.
