Leadville, Co. Abandonded train tunnell Tennesse pass

[cherry63376]

Found Railroad tunnel not being used anymore. It had overhead doors on the entrances. North of Leadville Colorado at the Tennesse pass on the continental devide.

[OC_Subiewrench]

That's a neat find , do you know why they have the overhead doors on the entrances? I've seen a few train tunnels before and never seen one with that feature.

[piplnr65656]

This is one of like 15 major railroad tunnels in the immediate area. There is a lot of stuff between Leadville and Minturn. There is also a old abandond military post (not much there any more but the foundations) 3 abandoned towns and more abandoned mines than you can shake a stick at.

[OC_Subiewrench]

An idea of the use of the overhead doors?

[BROUSER]

I'm going to hazard a guess and say "snow." I can't imagine anything else they could be for.

[OC_Subiewrench]

Maybe to allow Trains to "hide" in the tunnel protected from a snowstorm?

[BROUSER]

To keep snow from blowing in. Less track to clear.

[OC_Subiewrench]

Oh . More mundane , but also makes more sense . STUPID SUBIE ! STUPID SUBIE !

[CasperMilkToast]

Yea, I'd say snow too, or maybe to keep animals out. Would be a bloody mess to hit a deer or bear in there.

[ropingk]

how about just simple protection from the elements somw rain winter or to hide milatart equipment missles tanks big guns????

[BROUSER]

Yea, I'd say snow too, or maybe to keep animals out. Would be a bloody mess to hit a deer or bear in there.

Good call! I bet in a good blizzard might get a nice bunch of elk holing up in there.

[Riggz13]

Maybe to allow Trains to "hide" in the tunnel protected from a snowstorm?

Maybe to let trains hide from people looking at train tunnels, then the engineer could jump out and scare people because I bet driving a train gets boring after a few years.

[piplnr65656]

The door is for snow. The wind houls through there and the snow drifts up inside the tunnel. I thought they still use the tracks occasionaly for the Climax mine. I know they still have a big rotary plow and wedge up there for clearing the tracks. Trains hit wildlife all the time in tunnels without much damage. Take a walk through about any long narrow rail tunnel and you will find lots of bones.

The Moffet tunnel has a big cattle guard on it to keep livestock from getting into the tunnel. The tunnel is located in free range area.

[Willard]

Yeah there are tons of abandoned towns/mines/tunnels in the mountains of Colorado. In the mid 1990's my dad had this wild hair up his ass to go off road 4-wheeling in the mountains and we've done quite a bit in the leadville/buena vista area.

cool stuff to see all over the place it's an explorers wet dream

[Chris]

I would imagine it would be really hard to push a snow drift out of a tunnel, considering it has no where to go.