Samuel Hallett

Samuel Hallett (1827 – July 27, 1864) was an American railroad developer, particularly known for the initial development of the eastern branch of the Union Pacific Railroad and then the Kansas Pacific Railway.
Life.
Hallett was born in Canisteo, New York. In 1848 he married Ann Elizabeth McDowell of Wayne, New York, sister to Francis M. McDowell. Hallett and the McDowell brothers, along with Civil War General Nirom Crane, engaged in a number of enterprises including the Hallett & Co. Bank in New York City. In 1854 he built a large mansion in his wife's home town, known as the "Hallett House" or "The Aisle of Pines". He unsuccessfully ran for congress in 1856.
In 1863 Hallett’s firm, in association with John C. Fremont, bought the controlling interest in the Leavenworth, Pawnee and Western railroad. This line became the Union Pacific Eastern Division and then the Kansas Pacific Railway. They soon ran short of money and Hallett went before Congress to get additional funds for the road. After a dispute with Hallett, Fremont withdrew but Hallett took over and continued construction of the Kansas link of the railroad to the Pacific.
The process of building the railroad was highly political, and in the political maneuvering, Hallett came into conflict with the chief engineer of the Kansas Pacific, Orlando A. Talcott. Talcott, in a letter to president Abraham Lincoln, accused Hallett of substandard construction of the railroad. This letter was referred to the interior secretary John Palmer Usher who was a close friend of Hallett, and so Hallett was informed of it. As a result, Talcott was physically assaulted by one of Hallett's brothers in Wyandotte, Kansas (across the Kansas River from Kansas City, Kansas). On July 27, 1864, Talcott retaliated by shooting Samuel Hallett dead in the streets of Wyandotte.


Railroad guards in the American Civil War

The Independent State Road Guards were organized August 3, 1863, with the following commissioned officers: Captain, William A. Fuller; first lieutenant, John P. Mays; second lieutenant, A. S. Bridges; third lieutenant, R. C. Buchanan. The members were the employees of the Western and Atlantic Railroad.
The Georgia Railroad Guards were organized in Atlanta September 28, 1863. Its commissioned officers were: Captain, James H. Porter; first lieutenant, A. M. Eddleman; second lieutenant, J. C. Armstead; third lieutenant, W. C. Anderson. The members were the employees of the Georgia Railroad.


Rollins Pass

Rollins Pass, elevation , is a mountain pass and active archaeological site in the Southern Rocky Mountains of north-central Colorado in the United States. The pass is located on and traverses the Continental Divide of the Americas at the crest of the Front Range southwest of Boulder and is located approximately five miles east and opposite the resort in Winter Park—in the general area between Winter Park and Rollinsville. Rollins Pass is at the boundaries of Boulder, Gilpin, and Grand counties. Over the past 10,000 years, the pass provided a route over the Continental Divide between the Atlantic Ocean watershed of South Boulder Creek (in the basin of the South Platte River) with the Pacific Ocean watershed of the Fraser River, a tributary of the Colorado River.
The abandoned rail route over Rollins Pass was nominated for and accepted into the National Register of Historic Places in 1980 because of significant events and engineering feats accomplished by railroading efforts in the early 20th century. In 1997, additional areas on the pass were added to the National Register of Historic Places to include achievements made by John Q.A. Rollins and his toll wagon road that traversed the pass.
In 2012, Rollins Pass was listed as one of the most endangered sites in Colorado.
Naming.
"Rollins Pass" is the sole, official name recognized by both the United States Geological Survey and the United States Board on Geographic Names (BGN); a decision card was issued on Wednesday, December 7, 1904. The pass was first known as "Boulder Pass"—one of two variant names accepted by the BGN—the other being "Rogers Pass". The pass was also known infrequently as Rollinsville Pass.
In Grand County, Rollins Pass is sometimes given the sobriquet of "Corona Pass", named for the apex station at the summit, Corona. This nomenclature dispute provoked the ire of former railroaders; in fact, Frederick Bauer remarked, "[Rollins Pass is] incorrectly called Corona Pass by neophytes and some locals." It is inconsistent, as well as atypical, to refer to mountain passes by the names of their apex stations. Fremont Pass, for example, is not named "Climax Pass"; nor is La Veta Pass referred to as "Fir Pass".
Elevation.
The elevation of '11,660 feet' commonly attributed to Rollins Pass (note the McClure sketch later in this article) "reflects what might have been an original survey value obtained during either the late wagon road era or early railroad construction. ... The actual benchmarked survey elevation value of the summit of Rollins Pass is 11,671 feet (NGVD29), obtained during a 1952 second-order level line run from State Bridge to Denver by the US Coast and Geodetic Survey (predecessor to the National Geodetic Survey). When adjusted to NAVD88, the elevation is, without doubt, 11,676.79 feet."
Description.
Rollins Pass has been in continuous use for millennia: first as a sprawling and internationally significant game drive complex that was hand-constructed and used by Paleoindians more than 10,000 years ago through the mid-19th century; followed by nearly two decades as a wagon road from 1862–1880; as a rail route (under survey, construction, and later operational) from 1880 to 1928; as a primitive automobile road from 1936 to 1956; and since September 1, 1956 as a seasonal, unpaved motor vehicle road.
The pass is traversed by Paleoindians and Native American game drive complexes, hiking trails, including the Continental Divide Trail; an airway radial (V8), a 10" Xcel Energy high-pressure natural gas pipeline, and two roads:
Geology.
The Front Range was created by the Laramide Orogeny, the last of three major mountain-building events, which occurred between 70 and 40 million years ago. Tectonic activity during the Cenozoic Era changed the Ancestral Rocky Mountains via block uplift, eventually forming the Rocky Mountains as they exist today. The geologic make-up of Rollins Pass and the surrounding areas were also affected by deformation and erosion during the Cenozoic Era. Many sedimentary rocks from the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras exist in the basins surrounding the pass.
History.
Rollins Pass as a prehistoric Paleoindian & Native American hunting complex.
Paleoindians and early Native Americans were the first to utilize Rollins Pass as a natural, low crossing over the Continental Divide for the purposes of communal hunting of large game, including bighorn sheep and elk. There are more than 96 documented game drives, including the Olson game drive, found largely above timberline and near the summits of multiple mountain ridges. Handmade rock walls drove prey toward hunters waiting in blinds. These unique high-altitude constructs were built, refined, and continually used over millennia. Currently the game drives are being studied by Colorado State University archaeology graduate and PhD students led by Jason M. LaBelle, PhD, the associate professor in the Department of Anthropology at the Center for Mountain and Plains Archaeology in Fort Collins, Colorado. The game drives built on—and over—Rollins Pass have international significance.
The Olson game drive.
The Olson site (5BL147) is a multi-component rock walled game drive and is but one part of a much larger game drive complex located on Rollins Pass. Byron Olson and James Benedict conducted work at the site in the late-1960s. Present-day archaeology teams built on Olson and Benedict's work to expand the overview of the site using modern techniques. As of 2013, at least 45 blinds as well as 1,307 meters of rock walls are present across the Olson site; the purposes of which were to funnel game upslope to waiting hunters. Both radiocarbon and lichenometric dating suggest occupation by Native Americans spanning the last 3,200 years, with diagnostic tools suggesting even older use of the site, dating back to more than 10,000 years ago.
Other significant game drives.
Game drives at other locations on Rollins Pass yield hundreds of additional blinds and miles of rock walls.
Rollins Pass as a late-prehistoric and historic Native American route.
Rollins Pass has a documented history as a migratory route, hunting trail, and battlefield among the late prehistoric and contact-period Indians of Colorado.
Rollins Pass as an historic wagon road.
The first recorded use of the pass (then known as "Boulder Pass" or "Rollinsville Pass") by a wagon train was in 1862, nearly 14 years before Colorado became a state. Directions for wagons traveling from Rollinsville to Winter Park were published in newspapers. John Quincy Adams Rollins, a Colorado pioneer from a family of pioneers, constructed a toll wagon road over the pass in the 1873, providing a route between the Colorado Front Range and Middle Park; subsequently, Rollins Pass was named after John Q.A. Rollins.
John Quincy Adams Rollins.
John Q.A. Rollins was born on Sunday, June 16, 1816 in Gilmanton, New Hampshire and was the son of a New England minister. Rollins is described as being a strong man and an extensive character, popular with almost everybody whom he did not owe and his one predominating fault was his failure to pay his debts. Newspapers cited that he was so careless about his credit that he could not keep track of all his creditors, and in turn, they had trouble keeping track of him. Rollins died on Wednesday, June 20, 1894 and is buried in Colorado's oldest operating cemetery, Riverside, in block 5, lot 12. His simple tombstone reads, "John Q.A. Rollins | Colorado Pioneer of Rollinsville and Rollins Pass." Colonel Rollins' newspaper obituary mentions, "No man in Northern Colorado was better known nor counted more warm friends than John Q.A. Rollins."
Middle Park and South Boulder Wagon Road Company.
John Rollins capitalized on this and received approval for his toll wagon road on Tuesday, February 6, 1866. The Council and House of Representatives of Colorado Territory passed an act signed by the governor approving the wagon road as the "Middle Park and South Boulder Wagon Road Company." Records reflect the incorporators as "John Q.A. Rollins, Perley Dodge, Frederic C. Weir." Yet, the "Rollins road" through Boulder Pass was not completed until the first half of August 1873. While the newspaper articles cited "wagons can now be taken over this route without the slightest trouble," other articles countered, "the trail ... is splendid for horses but fearful for wagons" and "the rocks, mud-holes, bogs, creeks, boulders and sidling ledges of that road, can only be appreciated by being seen, the only wonder is that a wagon can be taken over at all." Other articles were a bit more grim, referring to the wagon road as a "little more than the rocky ridge of a precipice along which lurked death and disaster." Newspaper records reflect on Friday, June 12, 1874, James Harvey Crawford along with his wife, Margaret Emerine Bourn Crawford, made pioneer history as the first (nonindigenous) couple to cross Rollins Pass by wagons, and Mrs. Crawford is credited as the first woman to cross the pass. That day held many challenges, including a two-hour blizzard, "which was of terrific violence" and she remarked in a newspaper article, "the bumping was so hard I thought I was nearly dead." As there was no formal road constructed from "Yankee Doodle Camp on up, only an Indian trail, she and the children had been left behind while her husband took the wagon pulled by a pair of mules, a team of horses and a yoke of oxen on up and camped. Then he came back for her with the team and the running gear only of the wagon, and she had to hold the children on someway, despite the dreadful bumping" with the "wagon almost standing on end."
The pass was used heavily in the latter half of the 19th century by settlers and at one time as many as 12,000 cattle at a time were driven over the pass. The wagon road had one tollgate and the following rate structure: "For each vehicle drawn by two animals, two dollars and fifty cents; for each additional two animals, twenty-five cents; each vehicle drawn by one animal, one dollar and fifty cents; horse and rider and pack animals, twenty-five cents; loose stock, five cents per head ... horse with rider, or pack animal with pack, ten cents." The cost for nonpayment of a toll was the same as causing intentional damage to the road: $25.
According to the manuscript of Martin Parsons, "Twistin Dogies Tails Over "Rollins Pass"", each summer, Mr. Rollins would "build a cribbing of logs ... and would fill the center with rocks and earth, which helped reduce the grade between the hills." The original log cribbing can be seen today on the narrow ridge of Guinn Mountain, north of Yankee Doodle Lake. Rollins also built "The Junction House", "a large, two-story hewd-log structure" as a hotel, "at the point of intersection of the Berthoud and Rollins roads."
The road began to fall out of use and into disrepair in 1880, approximately one year before early railroading attempts over the pass begun.
Mining efforts on Guinn Mountain at Yankee Doodle Lake.
Guinn Mountain, encircling Yankee Doodle Lake, was used for mining from the early 1870s through the establishment of the railroad in 1904.
This area held at least "four silver lodes" or "five patented lode claims, one patented placer claim, several prospect pits and the dump of one caved adit." This caved adit, once , then lengthened to , is still shown as a mine on United States Geological Survey topographic maps as the "Blue Stones Mine". This tunnel exposed a "five-foot vein of ore varying in values from $16 to $25 per ton."
It was concluded that the "Guinn Mountain area has little or no economic potential," despite listings of important mineral strikes in period newspapers. Further, "ten samples collected in the area contained only negligible amounts of any metal. Samples from the Avalon placer claim, located on the South Fork [of] Middle Boulder Creek north of Guinn Mountain, and from the creek bottom were collected and panned; no gold was found." Despite this record, gold claims were nevertheless worked nearby with no published record of success.
Rollins Pass as an historic railroad route.
Early railroad endeavors.
There were multiple prior efforts to build a railroad over Rollins Pass in the 19th century and all attempts were met with impassable engineering challenges, financing issues, or both: "GHS, Jefferson, & Boulder County Railroad and Wagon Road" (A.N. Rogers' line) in 1867; "U.P." in 1866; "Kansas Pacific" in 1869; "Colorado Railroad" (B. & M. subsidiary) in 1884—two tunnels located; "Denver, Utah & Pacific" in 1881 (construction started and tunnel located). The remains of the latter tunneling attempt can still be seen on the northern slope of the rock wall at Yankee Doodle Lake and the detritus from the attempted excavation of the tunnel was placed at the northernmost part of the lake where pulverized granite tailings can be seen rising out of the water. These tailings were definitively from the 1880s tunneling efforts as they are not visible in the early stereoscopic images from the wagon road era of Yankee Doodle Lake; further, the attempted tunnel was not part of the later rail line that ultimately summited Rollins Pass.
The Moffat Road over Rollins Pass.
In the early 20th century, David Moffat, a Denver banker, established the Denver, Northwestern and Pacific Railway with the intention of building a railroad from Denver toward Salt Lake City, Utah by way of a tunnel under the Continental Divide. Surveys began in April 1902 and construction was started in January 1903, beginning on the east side of Rollins Pass. However, the railway only reached Craig, Colorado. This entire line from Denver to Craig was known as the Moffat Road.
The line included a stretch over the top of the Continental Divide, at Rollins Pass, with a two to four percent grade and switchbacks along many sections; the result was one of the highest adhesion (non-cog) standard-gauge railroads ever constructed in North America. This corridor over Rollins Pass was always intended to be temporary until what would later become the Moffat Tunnel was constructed and opened; therefore this overmountain route was constructed with more cost-effective materials: using wooden trestles (made of all Oregon fir) instead of iron bridges or high fills and wyes instead of turntables. Construction of this route was exceptionally dangerous and deadly: in a single day, 60 Swedish workers were killed when a powder charge exploded prematurely during the construction of "Needle's Eye Tunnel".
Along this route were three tunnels: Tunnel #31 ("the tunnel at Ladora"), Tunnel #32 ("Needle's Eye Tunnel"), and Tunnel #33 ("the Loop Tunnel at Riflesight Notch"). All three tunnels today are either completely caved in or have had multiple partial cave-ins. Other notable landmarks on the route included the "Riflesight Notch" Loop, located at Spruce Mountain: a spiral or loop where trains crossed over a trestle, made a ~90 degree gradual turn to descend , and passed through Tunnel #33 underneath the trestle.
A rail station, Corona, was established at the summit of the pass, with a red brick and green roofed dining hall, weather station, power station, and lodging. In summers, the train ride from Denver to Corona was advertised as a trip, "from sultry heat to Colorado's north pole;" tourists could stand in snowdrifts in the middle of July or August. Tours launched from the Moffat Depot, a small building constructed in the Georgian Revival style, featuring two-story tall windows, intricate exterior brickwork, and roofline pommels. This building, located several city blocks northwest from Denver Union Station, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976, and lay dormant for many decades after it was shuttered in 1947; in 2015, it was made the focal point of a senior living community center, after it was meticulously restored.
Weather and operational difficulties.
Despite the fact that the line was enclosed in almost continuous snowsheds (wooden tunnels) near the summit of the pass, trains were often stranded for several days (and in some cases up to 30–60 days) during heavy snowstorms because snow could fall or be blown through the wood planking of the sheds. Delays affected the timeliness of both newspaper and postal mail deliveries. Coal smoke and toxic gasses collected in the snowsheds causing temporary blindness, loss of consciousness, and sometimes death. Workers on the Moffat Road had an adage: "There's winter and then there's August", reflecting the fact that in the high mountains of Colorado, snow will often cover the area for more than six months and very cold and snowy weather may occur nearly year-round. It was these heavy snowstorms that led to the financial demise of the Moffat Road and served as the incentive for construction of a permanent railroad tunnel through the Rocky Mountains and into Middle Park.
Following scuba dives, no evidence exists that locomotive, rotary, or wreck debris rests at the bottom of Yankee Doodle Lake or Jenny Lake. However, many derailments, wrecks of Mallet locomotives, accidents resulting in injury and/or death, and/or the loss of portions of rail manifests occurred on both sides of the pass:
Despite the challenges documented above, by 1918, it was reported that 45 or 46 engines were part of the motive power of the railroad along with 3 rotary snowplows.
The Moffat Tunnel.
Several locations for the Moffat Tunnel were scouted prior to the selection of the present-day location; one possible location was identified at high altitude between Yankee Doodle Lake and the Forest Lakes.
Plans to build a longer tunnel at a lower elevation were better planned and financed; the single-track Moffat Tunnel opened just south of Rollins Pass on Sunday, February 26, 1928. The Moffat Tunnel eliminated 10,800 degrees of curvature along the Rollins Pass route; the tunnel resulted in considerable time savings as well as money that was used for snow removal atop Rollins Pass. After the first year of operations, an annual report to stockholders showed "marked savings in operating costs" by 24.86%. Savings were seen in other areas, including in fuel reductions ($89,074.45 savings; $1.3 million in 2018 when adjusted for inflation), engine servicing ($156,188.89 savings); whereas gross tons per train hour increased by 34.84%.
After the Moffat Tunnel opened, the tracks over Rollins Pass remained in place and were maintained at least as late as July 1929 as an emergency route. This emergency route was needed only once for a several day-long closure: on Thursday, July 25, 1929, dry rot of wooden timbers caused a collapse and of rock caved-in and blocked the Moffat Tunnel near the East Portal. It took until Tuesday, July 30, 1929 for the tunnel to be cleared of debris. Permission to dismantle the rails on Rollins Pass was granted by the Interstate Commerce Commission on Saturday, May 18, 1935 and the rails were removed the following summer: the west side was cleared by Tuesday, August 11, 1936, and the east side 14 days later; contractors toiled non-stop, including overnight to remove both the rails and ties. A wye on the passing siding at the East Portal of the Moffat Tunnel is currently utilized for short-turning some modern services and marks the spot where the Rollins Pass line, if it still existed, would have merged into the modern route.
The route through the Moffat Tunnel became part of the mainline across Colorado for the Denver and Salt Lake Railroad, later the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad, and now the Union Pacific Railroad. The Moffat Tunnel continues to be used for both the Amtrak's California Zephyr that provides service between Chicago, Illinois and Emeryville, California as well as for the winter and sometimes summer Ski Train that operated between Denver and Winter Park from 1940 to 2009; in March 2015 and from 2017–present, the service was rebranded the "Winter Park Express".
The original 1922 law that authorized the construction of the Moffat Tunnel specified that it should also be used for automobile traffic, with automobiles being placed on a ferry of flatbed railcars. To date, this has not happened.
The pioneer bore used to originally construct the Moffat Tunnel was later converted into the Moffat Water Tunnel by Denver Water.
Rollins Pass as an air route and navigational waypoint.
In the era of powered flight, Rollins Pass provides an attractive way to cross the Continental Divide between west and east at a relatively low point for aircraft. Not only does the enroute airway radial, "Victor Eight", cross the pass; but also a rotating airway beacon was established in the mid-to-late 1940s and first appeared on aeronautical sectional charts in March 1948 as a star, indicating a beacon. The beacon and its supporting infrastructure have since been removed due to the introduction of the Low-Frequency Radio Range systems to replace visual navigational aids. The rough road that was once used to service and reach Beacon Peak at the Continental Divide, branches off of the Rollins Pass road, and is closed to all forms of motorized traffic per the current Motor Vehicle Use Maps.
Rollins Pass as an historic automobile road.
Plans to convert Rollins Pass into an historic automobile road were first published in November 1949. Several years later, on Saturday, September 1, 1956, Colorado lieutenant governor, Steve McNichols, opened Rollins Pass as a non-vital and seasonal recreational road. Each summer, from 1956–1979, Rollins Pass served as a complete road over the mountain pass for automobiles until a substantial rock fall in "Needle's Eye Tunnel" in 1979 closed the path over the pass. In 1989, after several engineering studies and structural strengthening of "Needle's Eye Tunnel" were accomplished, the complete road was re-opened only to close permanently in 1990, due to a rockfall injuring a sightseer. For the past years—since July 1990—no motorized route connects across the Continental Divide, effectively making each side a dead-end uphill route that must be traveled again, downhill, to leave the pass.
Rollins Pass as a natural gas pipeline route.
In 1969, a natural gas pipeline was placed on Rollins Pass. In the mid-1990s, Rollins Pass was closed for the installation of a diameter Xcel Energy high-pressure natural gas pipeline. The pipeline, not always under marker, still is in existence and uses the low pass to reach the Front Range by loosely following County Road 8 in Fraser, utilizing much of Ranch Creek towards the Middle Fork of Ranch Creek below Mount Epworth, climbing the pass near Ptarmigan Point, and following much of the old railbed past Corona at the summit of Rollins Pass. The pipeline continues across the railbed towards and under the twin trestles, down the old wagon route on the spine of Guinn Mountain, and then towards Eldora. The pipeline undergoes internal inspections "at least" every seven years with the deployment of a smart pig inside the pipeline.
Artifacts and features.
Preservation of both prehistoric and historic records.
A majority of Rollins Pass is located within the boundaries of two national forests—Roosevelt National Forest and Arapaho National Forest—and as such, is federal land. The Archaeological Resources Protection Act along with the Antiquities Act, among other federal and cultural laws, recognizes the nonrenewable and vulnerable nature of cultural resources and these laws protect and make it illegal to collect artifacts, including but not limited to: arrowheads, horseshoes, buttons, cans, glass or ceramic bottles, dishware and utensils, coal, railroad spikes, snowshed wood, railroad ties, and telegraph poles from Rollins Pass. All artifacts—from the prehistoric to the historic—on the pass are objects of antiquity and are being studied and documented by universities and government agencies. The material record of Rollins Pass is illegally carried away each year—some by poachers—others in the backpacks of well-intentioned visitors who want a souvenir; but once artifacts are removed, a place can never again reveal the mysteries of the past. Each artifact has important scientific and cultural value and theft harms the historical record. Visitors are encouraged to preserve the area for future generations by leaving items in place and sharing photographs and GPS coordinates (if available) with researchers dedicated to telling the story of Rollins Pass and an internet resource has been setup to aid with this project.
Enforcement.
County sheriffs as well as United States Forest Service Law Enforcement personnel and staff routinely patrol and enforce natural and cultural resources on Rollins Pass as well as in other areas within the National Forest System.
Artifacts affecting the road prism.
On both sides of Rollins Pass, the road prism contains both prehistoric and historic artifacts buried under the surface. Any improvements to the rough road through regrading, including paving, would first require extensive sectional archaeological excavations by the United States Forest Service. In several places, on or just under the surface, historical artifacts are covered with geotextile stabilization fabrics having characteristics that match the soil and permeability of the existing roadbed.
Drystacks.
There are several drystack retaining walls on both sides of the pass, built without mortar, helping ensure they retain soil but not water.
Ghost towns, settlements, and gravesites.
There are several ghost towns on or near Rollins Pass, the most notable being Arrow, Corona, Ladora, the East Portal construction camp, Mammoth, and Tolland. There are also at least a half-dozen other established settlements, dating back to both the wagon road and railroad eras, scattered across Rollins Pass.
There are also several historic gravesites across Rollins Pass. One granite headstone at Arrow reads, "R.M. Smith | June 28, 1842 | Nov. 12, 1909." One marker near the Eldora Ski Area states that it holds two members of John C. Frémont's third expedition in 1845–1846, although this is disputed.
Environment.
Leave No Trace.
Rollins Pass has unique floral, faunal, and riparian zones that spread across multiple Colorado counties; to best preserve the native environment of Rollins Pass, leave no trace and trail ethics apply to all visitors. Trundling is discouraged for safety and environmental concerns as well as to preserve artifacts.
Flora.
Rollins Pass consists of several distinct floral environments including lodgepole pine and quaking aspen at lower elevations, and krummholz at tree line. Above tree line, the landscape consists largely of small perennial wildflowers, cryptobiotic soils, and alpine tundra. The latter being extremely fragile and if damaged, can take 100–500 years to recover. Leaving the trail can cause erosion, land degradation, possible species extinction, and habitat destruction and it is for these reasons vehicles, including off-road vehicles, are not allowed to leave the established road. There are at least two marked revegetation areas on Rollins Pass: one at Yankee Doodle Lake; the other at the summit leading to the historic dining hall foundation.
Pine beetle epidemic.
The mountain pine beetle epidemic, beginning in 1996 and continuing through present day, affects many forested areas in Colorado, including those on Rollins Pass. One out of every 14 trees in Colorado is dead. Trees affected by the beetles contain 10 times less water than a healthy tree and crown fires can quickly spread.
Fauna.
The top predator in the area are black bears ("Ursus americanus"), generally below timberline; however, they occasionally venture above the krummholz. The bears prey on bighorn sheep ("Ovis canadensis") and mountain goats ("Oreamnos americanus"), as well as yellow-bellied marmot ("Marmota flaviventris") in the region. Above timberline, pikas ("Ochotona princeps") are common. At or below timberline, both elk ("Cervus canadensis") and mule deer ("Odocoileus hemionus") are common. The presence of migratory bighorn sheep and other large game is the reason why Native Americans constructed sprawling yet intricate game drive complexes on Rollins Pass.
The porcupine can be seen at all elevations on Rollins Pass, including at (and above) the summit. The porcupine begins its rounds at sunset, as it is nocturnal; this member of the rodent family also has the ability to adroitly climb trees.
Among birds, the white-tailed ptarmigan ("Lagopus leucurus") are present on Rollins Pass, especially above treeline. Their seasonal camouflage is effective in the summer against the exposed blocks of granite as well as against snow in the winter, rendering them virtually undetectable. Brown-capped rosy finches ("Leucosticte australis"), rock wrens ("Salpinctes obsoletus"), and pipits are also seen or heard at timberline and near the summit.
Riparian zones.
Nutrient-rich ecosystems exist on Rollins Pass where water, and bodies of water, meet the alpine and subalpine tundras.
Lakes.
There are three lakes on the west side of Rollins Pass: "Deadman's Lake", "Pumphouse Lake", and "Corona Lake". On the east side of Rollins Pass are "King Lake", "Yankee Doodle Lake", and "Jenny Lake". Historically, Yankee Doodle Lake was referred to as "Lake Jennie" by John Quincy Adams Rollins, but modern archaeologists have re-interpreted this to be the modern day Yankee Doodle Lake; the railroad and period newspapers occasionally referred to this lake as "Dixie Lake". Also in the vicinity: "Bob Lake", "Betty Lake", the "Forest Lakes", "Skyscraper Reservoir", "Lost Lake", and "Woodland Lake".
In 2010, Pumphouse Lake and Ranch Creek were assessed by the Environmental Protection Agency and were determined to be polluted.
Creeks and rivers.
On the west side, in addition to the Fraser River at the start of Rollins Pass are the following creeks: the South Fork of Ranch Creek, the Middle Fork of Ranch Creek (fed by Deadman's Lake), and Ranch Creek (fed by Pumphouse and Corona Lakes). On the east side of Rollins Pass, the South Fork of the Middle Boulder Creek is fed by Bob and Betty Lakes and Jenny Creek is fed by both Jenny and Yankee Doodle Lakes; further downstream, Antelope Creek feeds into Jenny Creek. The South Boulder Creek runs at the start of Rollins Pass on the eastern side; but first flows through "Buttermilk Falls", a large waterfall, near King Lake, visible from the summit and upper eastern portions of Rollins Pass.
Improvements.
A summer 2006 project led by the United States Forest Service and having the participation of both environmental and user groups saw improvements made to wetlands, lakeshore, and upland habitats at Yankee Doodle Lake and Jenny Creek. Fencing was installed to restrict vehicle travel to designated routes and improve degraded areas. Before work could begin, sectional excavations by archaeologists took place to document the wagon road era settlements of the "Town of Yankee Doodle at Lake Jennie," located at present day Yankee Doodle Lake.
Wildfires.
In the summers, wildfire danger increases due to various environmental factors: low moisture, lightning strikes, high winds, and human-caused factors. As the pass is a recreational area, wildfires can also be caused by unmanaged, unattended, and/or uncontrolled campfires.
Fire restrictions.
At present, fire restrictions apply to the areas comprising Rollins Pass. Typically, these protective restrictions tend to be enacted starting as early as mid-late July or later in August:
Climate.
Seasons.
Winter.
Arctic conditions are prevalent during the winter, with sudden blizzards, high winds, and deep snowpack. High country overnight trips require gear suitable for or below. The subalpine region does not begin to experience spring-like conditions until June. Wildflowers bloom from late June to early August.
Summer.
Due to high-elevation above timberline in a backcountry setting, there is neither lightning protection nor lightning mitigation from sudden thunderstorms resulting in a high-risk, extremely dangerous situation for visitors. The most suitable—but not best—refuge available from electrical storms would be in a metal-topped vehicle as it would serve as a mobile Faraday cage.
Weather equipment and historical records.
Historical.
During the railroad era, a United States Weather Bureau observation station was mounted atop the large water tank at the townsite of Corona. Records from this station show "the prevailing wind direction was west, the lowest temperature recorded was (in February 1910), and the most monthly snowfall was in March 1912 with of snow." Newspaper reports mention winds in excess of , including at least one instance of , and temperatures of . Both these temperatures and wind speeds are in line with today's conditions in Colorado's high mountains.
Present day.
A small, solar-powered weather station exists on the west side of Rollins Pass, located above Ptarmigan Point.
Atmospheric pressure.
While temperature, humidity, and other factors influence atmospheric pressure, the atmospheric pressure on the summit measures roughly ; while a standard atmospheric pressure measured at sea level is . At this pressure, many people, especially out-of-town visitors from lower elevations, can suffer from rapid dehydration and altitude sickness, also known as acute mountain sickness. Acute mountain sickness can progress to high-altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE) or high-altitude cerebral edema (HACE), both of which are potentially fatal.
Historically, newspaper reports wrote of both visitors and railroad workers experiencing heart attacks and pneumonia at the summit of Rollins Pass as well as severe frostbite, including in July.
Avalanches.
Human-triggered and natural avalanches are possible anywhere on the pass and there have been four notable avalanches—three at Yankee Doodle Lake—on Rollins Pass:
Post-railroad era.
Backcountry skiers, snowshoers, and snowmobilers are advised to check daily avalanche forecasts, practice diligent terrain management, and always carry and know how to use rescue gear, including Emergency Position-Indicating Radio Beacons (EPIRBs).
On Wednesday, November 28, 2001, two highly-experienced backcountry skiers triggered a sizable hard-slab avalanche in the Yankee Doodle Lake basin. From the accident report, "The avalanche released from a southeast-facing slope and fell and stopped by crashing through the thick ice of Yankee Doodle Lake. The displaced water resulted in a surge tall along the south shore." The avalanche pushed both men into the lake and one survivor was sent into the center of the lake. The survivor, suffering from hypothermia and frostbite, hiked [to] to the Eldora Mountain Resort where he sought help. The search involved ground crews, air crews, avalanche rescue dogs, and trained dive-rescuers with specialized rubber suits. The body of the second skier was found offshore. Both skiers were well-equipped, including having avalanche transceivers. Following the accident, each year in December, the Rocky Mountain Rescue Group holds a "Joe Despres Memorial Dry Land Transceiver Training" to include practices for using transceivers, along with avalanche courses, fundraising, and backcountry seminars.
On Sunday, February 14, 2021, a 58-year old male triggered an avalanche on the east-facing slope of Mount Epworth while snowmobiling and perished at Pumphouse Lake.
Access.
General information and seasonal recreation.
Rollins Pass is managed by the United States Forest Service as a recreational location and can be accessed from roads on both west and east sides; however, no motorized route connects across the Continental Divide. The entire road is unpaved (dirt and rock), has no guardrails, and has a speed limit of . Current-year Motor Vehicle Use Maps (MVUMs) should be reviewed to determine which trails and roads are open to vehicles. Violators are subject to fines up to $5,000—"regardless of the presence or absence of signs" and operating a vehicle in wilderness areas is prohibited. Buck and rail fences have been placed at select areas on the pass to indicate routes or areas closed to motor vehicles.
There are no facilities, shops, restrooms, call boxes, water fountains, trash receptacles, nor shelters located on either side of the pass. The only exception is the Årestua Hut, located on the northern side of Guinn Mountain at on the east side of Rollins Pass. The small hut was constructed years ago and is open year-round. A series of hand-constructed stone windbreaks exist above timberline north of "Needle's Eye Tunnel"—these structures date to the railroad era on Rollins Pass and are not prehistoric. These windbreaks currently lack upper coverings or roofs and serve only as aerodynamic dampeners for wind and wind gusts.
Winter.
Both sides of the pass can be traveled by snowmobile when at least of snow cover the road in the winter—generally beginning in late November or early December and lasting through early April.
Spring.
Both sides of the pass are "closed" in spring—including several weeks in June—to any form of motorized traffic: snowmobiles, automobiles, Off-road vehicles (ORVs), All-terrain vehicles (ATVs), or motorcycles for the prevention of road damage.
Summer and early autumn.
Both sides of the pass can be traveled—in good weather—by motorized vehicles in the summer and early autumn. Rollins Pass is scheduled open for vehicular summer traffic from June 15 through November 15; however, it is generally not possible given typical snowfall accumulations and slower melt rates in southerly-shaded areas, to drive higher than Sunnyside (site of the old block station) or Ptarmigan Point on the western side, or Yankee Doodle Lake on the eastern side before early-to-mid July. In 2019, and in other summers when the prior season's snowfall has been late and/or considerable, mid-elevation gates on the west side of Rollins Pass remained closed on June 15 due to an order, "Extended closure due to snow, runoff, and road damage 36 CFR 261.54a."
The first high-country snowstorms bring fierce winds and create impassible snow drifts that are not plowed; this effectively puts higher landmarks—including the summit—out of reach as soon as late September or early October. On average, the near-annual existence of snow at or above timberline, ensures the road is only passable less than 90 days per year.
Summer usage of the pass is currently classified as 'heavy' by the United States Forest Service; as such, parking can be very limited at designated parking sites. While the route mostly has gentle grades with switchbacks between two and four percent and does not contain loose gravel, four-wheel drive higher-clearance vehicles fare better than two-wheel drive vehicles, particularly in certain technical sections: some areas on the east side have up to a 17.63% grade; the west side has some areas with a 15% grade. In all narrow sections, the vehicle heading downhill must yield to the vehicle traveling uphill.
From the north or south (along the Continental Divide Trail).
The Continental Divide Trail crosses the summit of Rollins Pass from south to north; the trail bisects the former wye at Corona and takes hikers through the Indian Peaks Wilderness past the dining hall foundation at the summit.
From the east (near Rollinsville & Tolland).
The road up the pass on the eastern side from the Peak to Peak Highway (State Highway 119) begins at the East Portal road running west, parallel to South Boulder Creek and the current Union Pacific Railroad tracks, to the East Portal of the Moffat Tunnel, and then rises on the abandoned railroad grade from Giant's Ladder to the closed "Needle's Eye Tunnel". From Rollinsville to East Portal, the road is an all-weather gravel road, with several chattery washboard sections, that can be traveled by regular automobiles. However, beginning at East Portal, at the formal start of Rollins Pass road (Forest Service Road 117), the road prism becomes very rough due to sustained sections of angular cobbles and potholes, the latter being several feet in size. The road has a level 2 road maintenance status described as "assigned to roads open for use by high-clearance vehicles" that includes the following attributes: "surface smoothness is not a consideration" and is "not suitable for passenger cars."
This former railroad bed is open for ; two miles past Jenny Lake, there is a concrete-filled steel road gate with large rocks and Jersey barriers approximately one half-mile before "Needle's Eye Tunnel". A rough trail continues around either side of the tunnel for non-motorized transportation; the road is open for hiking and mountain biking beyond the barricaded portal of the tunnel toward the summit. No motorized route connects across the Continental Divide.
A majority of the lower portion of the east side of the pass is posted private property with no trespassing off either side of the road as the properties belong to or are part of a conservation easement, "Tolland Ranch, LLC" and the "Zarlengo Family Partnership, LLP" as well as smaller land segments belonging to other entities. Shortly before the "Spruce Wye", the land ownership transitions back to the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forest where it remains uninterrupted up to and including the summit and surrounding areas.
From the west (near Winter Park).
The road up the pass (County Road 80) on the western side from Winter Park starts from U.S. Highway 40 in Winter Park and has several sections of angular cobbles and potholes of varying dimensions, some several feet in size. The road has a level 2 road maintenance status described as "assigned to roads open for use by high-clearance vehicles" that includes the following attributes: "surface smoothness is not a consideration" and is "not suitable for passenger cars."
The road is open for and terminates at the summit's parking area. Exactly before reaching the summit, capable vehicles can turn right onto County Road 80 and continue via Forest Service Road 501.1—this rough road rises above and bypasses the summit for another before dead-ending overhead Yankee Doodle Lake at Guinn Mountain. No motorized route connects across the Continental Divide.
The entrance to and lower portion of Rollins Pass is owned by the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forest; after roughly , the land transitions to private property belonging to "Arrowhead Winter Park Investors, LLC" and the "Denver, City & County Board of Water Commissioners", known more commonly as Denver Water. Shortly after the ghost town of Arrow and several miles before the "Ranch Creek Wye", the land ownership transitions back to the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forest where it remains uninterrupted up to and including the summit and surrounding areas.
Incidents and accidents.
Due to hairpin turns, steep terrain, and inclement weather, there have been several incidents and accidents, some fatal on or near the Rollins Pass road:
Routes, trails, and closures.
The complete pass is open and accessible for snowshoeing, fatbiking, backcountry skiing, and cross-country skiing in the winter and to hikers, bicyclists (including those on tandems and unicyclists), and horseback riders in the summer. For the past years—since July 1990—no motorized route connects across the Continental Divide, effectively making each side a dead-end uphill route that must be traveled again, downhill, to leave the pass.
Historic wagon route.
For visitors in or on motor vehicles wishing to access and retrace the historic wagon route over the pass (from east to west), there are numerous closures, some permanent, and no motorized route connects over the Continental Divide at Rollins Pass:
Railroad line.
For visitors in or on motor vehicles wishing to access and retrace the old railroad line, the majority of the railroad route or right-of-way over the pass is open and intact with several exceptions, detailed below, and no motorized route connects over the Continental Divide at Rollins Pass:
Adopted trails.
Several trails on Rollins Pass are adopted.
Administrative provision.
In 2002, the James Peak Wilderness and Protection Area Act (Public Law 107-216) was passed by Congress and signed into law by President George W. Bush. The act amended the Colorado Wilderness Act of 1993 and designated lands within both the Arapaho National Forest and the Roosevelt National Forest as the James Peak Wilderness area and added lands to the Indian Peaks Wilderness, establishing these lands as federally protected territory. The act contained an administrative provision:
If requested by one or more of the Colorado Counties of Grand, Gilpin, and Boulder, the Secretary shall provide technical assistance and otherwise cooperate with respect to repairing the Rollins Pass road in those counties sufficiently to allow two-wheel-drive vehicles to travel between Colorado State Highway 119 and U.S. Highway 40. If this road is repaired to such extent, the Secretary shall close the motorized roads and trails on Forest Service land indicated on the map entitled 'Rollins Pass Road Reopening: Attendant Road and Trail Closures', dated September 2001.
Historically, both Gilpin and Grand counties have requested to re-open the road; however, Gilpin County has publicly withdrawn their support and opposes re-opening the thoroughfare over the pass, along with Boulder County.
To date, only minor repairs (mostly washout repairs) have been made. The difficulties and expenses of making improvements to the road, including coordination of maintenance and re-introduced liabilities—coupled with intractable disputes surrounding the 1990 accident in the tunnel, have become contentious and ongoing issues; however, alternative routes utilizing the Moffat Tunnel have been proposed.
Airspace and aviation.
Airspace.
The entirety of Rollins Pass currently resides in Class G airspace. Per the FAA "Pilot’s Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge", "Although ATC has no authority or responsibility to control air traffic, pilots should remember there are visual flight rules (VFR) minimums that apply to Class G airspace."
Airway "Victor Eight".
Rollins Pass is traversed by a low altitude enroute airway radial, "Victor Eight," the width of the airway is 4 nautical miles on either side of the centerline which skirts the summit of the pass. Pilots have recommended to avoid the area in bad weather due to extreme downdrafts, mountain waves, and turbulence on the east side of the pass.
Drone operations.
Drone (UAS) flights are permissible in Class G airspace on/over Rollins Pass provided all flights adhere to the FAA’s regulations for recreational or commercial drone flights. The one major restriction is that drones cannot take off from, land in, or be operated from congressionally designated wilderness areas. Remote pilots and drone enthusiasts should exercise extreme caution as the enroute airway radial brings fast-moving aircraft within the area, including Flight for Life helicopters, aerial firefighting aircraft, search and rescue helicopters, and high-speed military aircraft; many of which fly below 500 AGL.
Emergency landing zone.
A non-illuminated summer emergency backcountry helicopter landing zone exists at the summit, placed sometime between September 1999 and October 2005.
Rotating airway light beacon (Beacon 82).
A rotating airway light beacon ("Beacon 82" on aeronautical charts), was placed very near the summit of Rollins Pass atop what was then later termed Beacon Peak, in the mid-to-late 1940s at an approximate elevation of . The glass-domed lighted beacon rotated six times per minute, marking the airway between Los Angeles and Denver, and it held a two-million candlepower electric lamp with a parabolic reflector. The beacon was removed in the late-1960s and is currently in storage (not on display) at the Pioneer Village Museum in Hot Sulphur Springs, Colorado; however an concrete foundation remains near the top of the peak along with the leg stubs used for the beacon's lattice tower.
Accidents and incidents.
There have been many documented airplane and helicopter crashes on and near Rollins Pass:


Transtar, Inc.

Transtar, Inc. is a subsidiary of US Steel. It was organized in 1988 to own US Steel's railroad and other transportation subsidiaries.
Transtar owns or has owned the following companies:


Appalachian and Ohio Railroad

The Appalachian and Ohio Railroad is a class III railroad operating in West Virginia.
Originally the Cowen and Pickens Subdivisions of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, the railroad was a part of CSX until it was leased to Watco Companies, which began operating the railroad on March 25, 2005. Watco only held the line for a short time before turning the lease from CSX over to Four Rivers Transportation, now P&L Transportation, on May 15, 2006.
The railroad operates 158 miles of track between Grafton and Cowen. It has one active branch, a portion of the Pickens Subdivision that connects Alexander to the main line at Hampton.
The A&O's main customers are coal mines, although it carries smaller amounts of chemicals and wood. Among the six coal mines it serves is the Sago Mine, site of the Sago Mine disaster in 2006.
It connects with four other railroads:
All of these railroads are currently active, including the BEEM regularly loading coal trains since 2008 and the ELKR regularly moving cars between Gilmer and Gassaway for storage and the contracted repair facility in Gassaway, WV.
Locomotive Roster.
The A&O railroad uses CSX locomotives to move the empty and loaded cars coal trains to and from customers. They currently have two CEFX SD90's for helper services in the Burnsville area, four GP38-3's (#s 2631, 2634,2638, and 2662), and two GP38-2's (#s 2665 and 2670) for various switching and local tasks. All Watco motive power, including twenty SD50's (#5101-5120) four GP50's (5010-5013) and five GP38's (ex-Bangor & Aroostock) went to other Watco operations.


Monida Pass

Monida Pass is a high mountain pass in the Rocky Mountains of the northwestern United States, at an elevation of 6820 ft (2079 m) above sea level on the Union Pacific Railroad and 6870 ft (2094 m) on adjacent Interstate 15.
On the Continental Divide in the Bitterroot Range, it marks the transition between the Beaverhead Mountains and the Centennial Mountains. Its name is derived from the states that it separates, "Mon" from Montana and "-ida" from Idaho.
The pass forms part of the border between eastern Idaho and southwestern Montana, and is between the towns of Spencer in Clark County and Lima in Beaverhead County. On the Idaho side is Beaver Creek running through Beaver Canyon, Idaho, which was the route of the Utah and Northern Railway in 1880 and is still used by Union Pacific.
Union Pacific once had an icemaking plant at Humphrey, Idaho, which is now a ghost town; Monida, Montana, which is near the top of the pass, is also almost a ghost town, as only seven people now live there. Its elevation is 6780 ft (2067 m), 90 ft (27 m) below the pass on I-15.
In the late 19th century, stagecoaches ferried tourists from the railroad at Monida Pass to Yellowstone National Park, until UP built a branch line to the park over Reas Pass. Interstate 15, the "Veterans Memorial Highway," runs through the pass and north to the international boundary with Canada at Sweetgrass.


David A Ramey

David Alexander Ramey, Sr. (January 10, 1939 – May 17, 2017), was an American artist. He was born in Ridgeway, Virginia, but moved to Roanoke in 1949, where he later became a Conductor (rail) on the Norfolk and Western Railroad in 1974.
Biography.
David Ramey began making drawings of funny events he witnessed while working on the railroad, and also made sketches on the back of envelopes to amuse his family and friends. His skill came from watching his father draw, and he made color pencil drawings of his neighborhood and the Henry Street section of Roanoke. He also drew portraits and made images of the Hotel Roanoke, the Gainsboro Branch of the Roanoke City Public Library, St. Andrew's Roman Catholic Church (Roanoke, Virginia) and the N&W J class (1941) steam engine. At one time he desired to become an art teacher in the schools, but that ambition never came to pass. He was later offered a job as a drafter for the railroad, but turned it down since it required being away from his family. Ramey’s interest in art began when he was 5 years old. “I used to watch my dad scribble on a piece of paper,” he said, and, imitating his father, started to teach himself how to draw. By the time he had art classes in school, “what they were teaching me, I already knew.”
"Educator and artist Charlene Graves, a former Roanoke Arts Commission member, was the first to champion Ramey’s work, arranging exhibitions and talks. In his drawings, “I saw pictures of things in Henry Street that I could not find pictures of in reality,” she said in 2013." A local folk art gallery also supported his work, calling his historical images of Henry Street realistic, and made from memory, and not from photographs. Ramey died on May 17, 2017.
Recognition and awards.
"In 2014, Ramey received a Citizen of the Year award in the arts from the Roanoke branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People."
In 2017, "Henry Street" by David Ramey was chosen to one of the "Art on the Bus" images to promote Roanoke on the sides of the city bus.


Boeing Rotorcraft Systems

Boeing Rotorcraft Systems (formerly Boeing Helicopters and before that Boeing Vertol) is the former name of an American aircraft manufacturer, now known as Vertical Lift division of Boeing Defense, Space & Security.
The headquarters and main rotorcraft factory is in Ridley Park, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia. Production of Apache attack helicopters in Mesa, Arizona, formerly part of Rotorcraft Systems, is now under the Global Strike Division of Boeing Military Aircraft.
History.
Background.
Boeing Helicopters was created as Boeing Vertol when the Vertol Aircraft Corporation (formerly Piasecki Helicopter) company of Morton, Pennsylvania was acquired by Boeing in 1960; the Vertol name was an abbreviation for Vertical Take Off and Landing. Other names by which the division sometimes referred to itself in correspondence over the years were "Boeing Aircraft Company, Vertol Division" and "Boeing Philadelphia". The company was responsible for the design and production of the CH-46 Sea Knight and the CH-47 Chinook. The name became Boeing Helicopters in 1987, and the current name was adopted in 2002.
When Boeing merged with McDonnell Douglas, the former Hughes Helicopters operations in Mesa, Arizona were placed under Boeing Helicopters. A year and a half later Boeing sold the civilian line of helicopters to MD Helicopter Holdings Inc., an indirect subsidiary of the Dutch company, RDM Holding Inc.
By December 2006 Columbia Helicopters of Aurora, Oregon had purchased the Type certificate of the Boeing Vertol 107-II and Boeing Model 234 Commercial Chinook from Boeing. The Columbia Helicopters is seeking FAA issuance of a Production Certificate to produce parts with eventual issuance of a PC to produce aircraft.
Mass transit.
For much of the 1970s, Boeing Vertol entered the railroad rolling stock market in an attempt to keep government-funded contracts in the wake of the Vietnam War. During this period, Boeing Vertol manufactured the Morgantown Personal Rapid Transit system for West Virginia University, the 2400 series Chicago 'L' cars for the Chicago Transit Authority, and the US Standard Light Rail Vehicle (marketed as the "Boeing LRV"). It was the last vehicle, an attempt at a standardized light rail vehicle promoted by the federal Urban Mass Transportation Administration, that led to the company's ending rail production due to myriad problems. This cost Boeing and the vehicle's two buyers, Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority and San Francisco Municipal Railway millions and led to premature retirement of the vehicles.
While the company's subway cars performed better, they did not continue in the railcar business, as competitors may have underbid on a key contract and the post-Vietnam War military build-up provided far more lucrative military contracts.
See also.
Comparable major helicopter manufacturers:
References.
Notes
Further reading


Agrock yard

The Agrock yard (Lat/Long: ) is a Rail yard in rural Central Florida near a defunct phosphate mine and what is now the resultant ghost town in Brewster, Florida, now under the jurisdiction of Fort Meade, Florida— some 6 to 8 miles due west of the yard.


Pennsylvania Railroad class CC2s

The Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) class CC2s consisted of ten 0-8-8-0 compound articulated (Mallet) type of steam locomotive built by Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1919 for PRR. These were used for transfer runs, and used for switching as "yard hump" power.
By 1957, all steam locomotives of the PRR were retired when the PRR switched from steam to diesel. These large engines continued to pull heavy transfer runs throughout the 1940s the PRR sold them for scrap between October 1947 and April 1949.


Air Line Railroad in South Carolina

The Air Line Railroad Company of South Carolina was chartered as a South Carolina railroad that was to have served the Southeastern United States, beginning in the mid-19th century.
The Air Line was created by an act of the South Carolina General Assembly in 1856, with the goal of laying a line toward Georgia to the west and "some point of connection with the Charlotte and South Carolina Railroad, in the direction of Charlotte, North Carolina," in the east. This did not happen as the Air Line Railroad never laid any track.
In June 1870, the Air Line Railroad Company of South Carolina and the Georgia Air Line Railroad were joined together by the Richmond and Danville Railroad to form the Atlanta and Richmond Air Line Railway.


Henry Kirke Porter

Henry Kirke Porter (November 24, 1840 – April 10, 1921) was an American businessman and Representative of the United States Congress for Pennsylvania's 31st congressional district.
Biography.
Porter was born in Concord, New Hampshire. In 1860, he graduated from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. He also helped found the YMCA that year. He attended the Newton Theological Seminary in Newton Center, Massachusetts.
In 1862, he enlisted in the 45th Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteer Militia, and was mustered out in July 1863.
He continued his theological training at the Rochester Theological Seminary in Rochester, New York, but in 1866 he was given a gift of $20,000 by his father, which changed the course of his life.
He invested that money with a partner, John Y. Smith, and formed the Smith & Porter Machine works. They opened a small shop in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which grew to become H.K. Porter, Inc. Porter served as president of the company.
He was President of the Pittsburgh YMCA from 1868 to 1887, and was President of the Western Pennsylvania Institute for the Blind in 1904. He served in the United States House of Representatives in the 58th United States Congress from 1903 to 1905 as an Independent Republican.
He was a member of the Jekyll Island Club (aka The millionaires Club) on Jekyll Island, Georgia.
He continued as President of H.K. Porter, Inc. until his death at age 81 in Washington, D.C., and was buried in the Allegheny Cemetery in Pittsburgh.
References.
 Retrieved on 2008-02-14


Thomas L. Rosser

Thomas Lafayette "Tex" Rosser (October 15, 1836 – March 29, 1910) was a Confederate major general during the American Civil War, and later a railroad construction engineer and in 1898 a brigadier general of volunteers in the United States Army during the Spanish–American War. A favorite of J.E.B. Stuart, he was noted for his daring cavalry raids, efficiency in handling combat troops, and tactical brilliance.
Early life and career.
Rosser was born on a farm called "Catalpa Hill", in Campbell County, Virginia, the son of John and Martha Melvina (Johnson) Rosser. In 1849, the family relocated to a farm in Panola County, Texas, some forty miles west of Shreveport, Louisiana. The 13-year-old Tom Rosser led the wagon train bearing his mother and younger siblings westward, as business considerations compelled his father to remain in Virginia for a short time. Texas Congressman Lemuel D. Evans appointed Rosser to the United States Military Academy in 1856. However, Rosser did not complete the required five-year course of study, as Rosser, a supporter of Texas secession, resigned when Texas left the Union on April 22, 1861 two weeks before the scheduled graduation. Rosser traveled to Montgomery, Alabama, to enlist in the Confederate States Army. Thomas Rosser's roommate at the academy, George Armstrong Custer was a close friend and despite being on opposing sides this friendship continued both during and after the Civil War ended. He was known for his "hit and run" raids.
Civil War.
 Rosser was commissioned a first lieutenant and became an instructor to the famed "Washington Artillery" of New Orleans. He commanded its Second Company at the First Battle of Manassas in July 1861. He was noted for shooting down one of George B. McClellan's observation balloons, a feat that won him promotion to captain. He commanded his battery during the Seven Days Battles of the Peninsula Campaign, and was severely wounded at Mechanicsville. Rosser was promoted to lieutenant colonel of artillery, and a few days later to colonel of the 5th Virginia Cavalry.
He commanded the advance of J.E.B. Stuart's expedition to Catlett's Station, and was notable in the Second Battle of Manassas, where captured Union commander John Pope's orderly and horses. During the fighting at Crampton's Gap at the Battle of South Mountain, his cavalry delayed the advance of William B. Franklin's VI Corps with help from John Pelham's artillery. At Antietam, his men screened Robert E. Lee's left flank. He temporarily assumed command of Fitzhugh Lee's brigade during the subsequent fighting against Alfred Pleasonton.
He was again badly wounded at the Battle of Kelly's Ford, where "the gallant" Pelham was killed. Rosser was disabled until the Gettysburg Campaign, where he commanded his regiment in the fighting at Hanover and the East Cavalry Field at Gettysburg. He was promoted to brigadier general of the "Laurel Brigade," which had gained fame under Turner Ashby. He was distinguished again in the 1864 Overland Campaign, driving back a large force of Union cavalry and artillery at the Battle of the Wilderness.
Rosser was yet again wounded at Trevilian Station, where his brigade captured a number of prisoners from former West Point classmate and close personal friend George Armstrong Custer. His brigade later gallantly fought against Philip Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley, and he efficiently commanded Fitzhugh Lee's division at Cedar Creek. A rare defeat where Custer overran Rosser's troops at the Battle of Tom's Brook allowed Custer to repay Rosser for Trevilian Station. For no tactical reason, Custer chased Rosser's troops for over 10 miles and the action became known as the "Woodstock Races" in Union accounts. Custer had also captured Rosser's private wardrobe wagon at Tom's Brook, and Rosser immediately messaged him.
Dear FannyYou may have made me take a few steps back today, but I will be even with you tomorrow. Please accept my good wishes and this little gift—a pair of your draws captured at Trevillian Station.Tex
Custer shipped Rosser's gold-laced Confederate grey coat to his wife with a reply.
Dear friendThanks for setting me up in so many new things, but would you please direct your tailor to make the coat tails of your next uniform a trifle shorter.Best regards G.A.C.
Rosser became known in the Southern press as the "Saviour of the Valley," and was promoted to major general in November 1864. He conducted a successful raid on New Creek, West Virginia, taking hundreds of prisoners and seizing much need quantities of supplies. In January 1865, he took 300 men, crossed the mountains in deep snow and bitter cold, and surprised and captured two infantry regiments in their works at Beverly, West Virginia, taking 580 prisoners. Most of the men in Rosser's command were recruits from West Virginia.
Rosser commanded a cavalry division during the Siege of Petersburg in the spring, fighting near Five Forks. It was here that Rosser hosted the "infamous" shad bake (fish feast) north of the battle lines preceding and during the primary Federal assault. Guests at this small affair included George Pickett and Fitzhugh Lee. Shelby Foote states that "Pickett only made it back to his division after over half his troops had been shot or captured..". It is said that Lee never forgave Pickett for his absence from his post when the Federals broke the Confederate lines and carried the day at Five Forks.
Rosser was conspicuous during the Appomattox Campaign, capturing a Union general, John Irvin Gregg, and rescuing a wagon train near Farmville. He led a daring early morning charge at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865, and escaped with his command as Lee surrendered the bulk of the Army of Northern Virginia. Under orders from the secretary of war, he began reorganizing the scattered remnants of Lee's army in a vain attempt to join Joseph E. Johnston's army in North Carolina. However, he surrendered at Staunton, Virginia, on May 4 and was paroled shortly afterwards.
Postbellum activities.
Rosser was superintendent of the National Express Company, working for fellow ex-Confederate general Joe Johnston. He resigned to become assistant engineer during the construction of the Pittsburgh & Connellsville Railroad. He became chief engineer of the eastern division of the Northern Pacific Railroad. Later he was chief engineer of the Canadian Pacific. In 1886, he bought a plantation near Charlottesville, Virginia, and became a gentleman farmer. On June 10, 1898, President William McKinley appointed Rosser a brigadier general of United States volunteers during the Spanish–American War. His first task was training young cavalry recruits in a camp near the old Civil War battlefield of Chickamauga in northern Georgia. He was honorably discharged on October 31, 1898, and returned home. He died at Charlottesville and is buried at Riverview Cemetery, Charlottesville.
Rosser Avenue in Brandon, Manitoba is named in his honor, as well as the village and Rural Municipality of Rosser near Winnipeg. There is also a Rosser Avenue in Bismarck, North Dakota. This was platted before Custer's arrival in the area, and so likely is related to Rosser's time with the railroad (Northern Pacific) rather than his friendship with Custer, or his military career. There is also a Rosser Avenue in Waynesboro, Virginia. In Charlottesville, Virginia there are both Rosser Avenue and Rosser Lane.


Duquesne Incline

The Duquesne Incline () is a funicular located near Pittsburgh's South Side neighborhood and scaling Mt. Washington in Pennsylvania, United States. Designed by Samuel Diescher, the incline was completed in 1877 and is long, in height, and is inclined at a 30-degree angle. It has an unusual for United States (but standard for Finland, Mongolia and the former-USSR) track gauge of .
History.
Originally steam powered, the Duquesne Incline was built to carry cargo up and down Mt. Washington in the late 19th century. It later carried passengers, particularly Mt. Washington residents who were tired of walking up footpaths to the top. Inclines were then being built all over Mt. Washington. But as more roads were built on “Coal Hill” most of the other inclines were closed. By the end of the 1960s, only the Monongahela Incline and the Duquesne Incline remained.
In 1962, the incline was closed, apparently for good. Major repairs were needed, and with so few patrons, the incline's private owners did little. But local Duquesne Heights residents launched a fund-raiser to help the incline. It was a huge success, and on July 1, 1963, the incline reopened under the auspices of a non-profit organization dedicated to its preservation.
The incline has since been totally refurbished. The cars, built by the J. G. Brill and Company of Philadelphia, have been stripped of paint to reveal the original wood. An observation deck was added at the top affording a view of Pittsburgh's "Golden Triangle", and the Duquesne Incline is now one of the city's most popular tourist attractions.


William B. Ogden

William Butler Ogden (June 15, 1805 – August 3, 1877) was an American politician and railroad executive who served as the first Mayor of Chicago. He was referred to as "the Astor of Chicago." He was, at one time, the city's richest citizen.
Early life.
Ogden was born on June 15, 1805, in Walton, New York. He was the son of Abraham Ogden (1771–1825) and Abigail (née Weed) Ogden (1788–1850).
When still a teenager, his father died and Ogden took over the family real estate business. He assisted Charles Butler, his brother-in-law, with business matters related to opening a new building for New York University, attending the law school for a brief period himself.
Career.
Political career.
The first political position Ogden held was as Postmaster of Walton, New York, having been appointed by President Andrew Jackson to the position.
He was a member of the New York State Assembly (Delaware Co.) in 1835.
During his career in New York politics, Odgen was a Jacksonian Democrat. However, Odgen was also an advocate of government funding for infrastructural improvements, aspiring to see the federal government financially back the construction of a railroad from New York to Chicago. He told colleague's that such a railroad would be "the most splendid system of internal communication ever yet devised by man. He had been elected to the New York Senate on a platform supporting state funding for the construction of the New York and Erie Railroad. The bill he backed to accomplish this was passed.
While Ogden's initial concern in Chicago was based in his land interests there, he believed that he could not afford to stay out of the politics of the city, as he believed growing western towns such as Chicago were dependent on government assistance.
Shortly after moving to Chicago in 1836, Ogden joined the committee responsible for drafting the city charter to be submitted to the state legislature.
In 1837, he was elected the first mayor of Chicago, serving a single one-year term. From 1840 through 1841, he served on the Chicago Common Council as an alderman from the 6th Ward. From 1847 through 1848, he served as an alderman from the 9th Ward.
Odgen was booster of Chicago both during and after his tenures in elected office. At the time he came to Chicago, its buildings were largely wood cabins, it lacked sidewalks and decent bridges, it had no paved roads, and it lacked water supply infrastructure. As a politician he advocated for the city to raise tax revenue for new roads, plank sidewalks, and bridges (which he presented designs of his own for). He also used his own wealth to fund improvements to the city's infrastructure.
Railroad career.
Ogden was a leading promoter and investor in the Illinois and Michigan Canal, then switched his loyalty to railroads. Throughout his later life, Ogden was heavily involved in the building of several railroads. "In 1847, Ogden announced a plan to build a railway out of Chicago, but no capital was forthcoming. Eastern investors were wary of Chicago's reputation for irrational boosterism, and Chicagoans did not want to divert traffic from their profitable canal works. So Ogden and his partner J. Young Scammon solicited subscriptions from the farmers and small businessmen whose land lay adjacent to the proposed rail. Farmer's wives used the money they earned from selling eggs to buy shares of stock on a monthly payment plan. By 1848, Ogden and Scammon had raised $350,000—enough to begin laying track. The Galena and Chicago Union Railroad was profitable from the start and eventually extended out to Wisconsin, bringing grain from the Great Plains into the city. As president of Union Pacific, Ogden extended the reach of Chicago's rail lines to the West coast."
In 1853, the Chicago Land Company, of which Ogden was a trustee, purchased land at a bend in the Chicago River and began to cut a channel, formally known as North Branch Canal, but also referred to as Ogden's Canal. The resulting island is now known as Goose Island.
Ogden designed the first swing bridge over the Chicago River and donated the land for Rush Medical Center. Ogden was also a founder of the Chicago Board of Trade.
Later Ogden served on the board of the Mississippi and Missouri Railroad and lobbied with many others for congressional approval and funding of the transcontinental railroad. After the 1862 Pacific Railroad Act, Ogden was named as the first president of the Union Pacific Railroad. Ogden was a good choice for the first president, but his railroad experience was most likely not the primary reason he was chosen; Ogden was a clever man who had many political connections. When Ogden came to lead the Union Pacific, the railroad was not fully funded and had not yet laid a single mile of track. The railroad existed largely on paper created by an act of Congress. As part of the 1862 Pacific Railroad Act, Congress named several existing railroad companies to complete portions of the project. Several key areas needed to link the East (Chicago) to the West had none, and hence the Union Pacific was formed by Congress. Ogden was a fierce supporter of the transcontinental railroad at a time of great unrest for the country and was quoted as saying:
As history now shows, eventually Ogden and many others got their wish.
Later life.
On October 8, 1871, Ogden lost most of his prized possessions in the Great Chicago Fire. He also owned a lumber company in Peshtigo, Wisconsin, which burned the same day.
Personal life.
He married Marianna Tuttle Arnot (1825–1904). Marianna was the daughter of Scottish born John Arnot and Harriet (née Tuttle) Arnot. In New York, he named his home in the Highbridge, Bronx (named after the bridge now called Aqueduct Bridge over the Harlem River connecting Manhattan and the Bronx) Villa Boscobel.
Ogden died at his home in the Bronx on Friday, August 3, 1877. The funeral was held August 6, 1877, with several prominent pallbearers including, Gouverneur Morris III, William A. Booth, Parke Godwin, Oswald Ottendorfer, William C. Sheldon, Martin Zborowski, and Andrew H. Green. He was interred at Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx.
Legacy.
Namesakes of William B. Ogden include a stretch of U.S. Highway 34, called Ogden Avenue in Chicago and its suburbs, Ogden International School of Chicago, which is located on Walton Street in Chicago, and Ogden Slip, a man-made harbor near the mouth of the Chicago River. Ogden Avenue in The Bronx is also named after him, as is Ogden, Iowa. The Arnot-Odgen Memorial Hospital, founded by his wife Mariana, also bears his namesake. Following his death, William B. Ogden left money to his hometown of Walton N.Y which was used for the construction of a library, completed in 1897, which bears his name, the William B. Ogden Free Library, and is still in use today.


Cherokee Railroad

The Cherokee Railroad is an historic railroad that operated in the U.S. state of Georgia.
It was organized in 1870 to take over operations from the failing Cartersville and Van Wert Railroad. The Cherokee Railroad initially operated from Cartersville to Taylorsville, and the new owners extended the railroad to Rockmart, Georgia. The new owners also converted the track from broad gauge to narrow gauge. Unfortunately, the financial problems for the line continued and it was eventually sold to the Cherokee Iron Company in 1879. The Cherokee Iron Company then leased the Cherokee Railroad's lines to the East and West Railroad of Alabama who, in 1886, purchased the line outright and then merged it into its own operations.


List of North American light rail systems by ridership

The following is a list of all light rail systems in North America, ranked by ridership. Daily figures for American and Canadian light rail systems are "average weekday "unlinked" passenger trips" (where transfers between lines are counted as two separate passenger "boardings" or "trips"), unless otherwise indicated. For light rail systems in the United States and Canada, these figures come from the American Public Transit Association (APTA) Ridership Reports statistics. For Mexico, the figures are obtained from Banco de Información Económica's Instituto Nacional de Estadísitica y Geografía (INEGI), and the daily figures represent daily passenger trips "averaged from the monthly and quarterly ridership figures". All figures are from 2018 and the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2018, unless otherwise noted. "Daily boardings per mile" figures have been rounded to the nearest 5 or 10.
The question of which systems would count as "light rail transit systems" is debatable, so this table includes some systems (such as Toronto's) which are technically streetcars rather than "true" light rail.
Systems.
Sources:
Excluded systems.
The following systems have been excluded from the ridership table above (generally because the system's ridership statistics are not tracked by APTA):


Regional railroad

In the United States, a regional railroad is a railroad company that is not Class I, but still has a substantial amount of traffic or trackage (and is thus not a short line). The Association of American Railroads (AAR) has defined the lower bound as of track or $40 million in annual operating revenue. (The Class I threshold is $250 million, adjusted for inflation since 1991.)
List of regional railroads.
The following railroads were classified as regional by the AAR in 2007.


Walter Theodore Krausch

Walter Theodore Krausch, known as W.T. Krausch (1868–1929), was an American architect, engineer, and inventor who worked for the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad (CB&Q) from the late 1880s to the 1920s.
Life.
Krausch was born at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania June 11, 1868, the son of Theodore and Emma (Heide) Krausch. He was educated at Evanston High School, at a technical school at Buffalo, New York, and by private tutoring.
Although associated with the firm of Theodore Krausch & Company, architects and engineers, at Buffalo, New York from 1888 to 1891, Krausch began work for the CB&Q in 1888. The 1892 Directory of La Grange, Illinois, lists his profession as draugthtsman. The CB&Q appointed him to the position of architect by 1901.
Krausch was appointed engineer of buildings by the CB&Q in April, 1912. His responsibilities, including designing buildings and supervising construction, were wide-ranging, but probably typical of such a position. Examples include awarding a contract for construction of a large coaling plant at Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, to the Roberts & Schaefer Company in 1913; in March 1922 directing preparation of a report on the effects of a fire in the CB&Q office building in Chicago and lessons to be learned; supervising preparation in March 1922 of plans for the station and power house in Aurora, Illinois; in April 1922 receiving bids for construction of a freight house in Chicago; directing the CB&Q's Building Department in work related to the railroad's grade separation project in Aurora, Illinois, in 1922; in August 1922 receiving bids to construct a bridge over the Platte River near Oreapolis, Nebraska.
Krausch was active in professional organizations: he presented the report of the Standing Committee entitled "Modern Locomotive Coaling Station. Design, Construction, Operation and Maintenance" to the sixth annual convention of the International Railway Fuel Association at Chicago in May, 1914; presented a paper on coaling plants and fuel economy to a meeting of the Western Railway Club in Chicago November 19, 1917; was a member of Committee XXIII Shops and Locomotive Terminals of the American Railway Engineering Association in 1921 and 1922; at the annual meeting of the Railway Fire Protection Association at Washington in October 18, 1922, spoke briefly of the recent burning of the CB&Q general office building in Chicago; was a member of the Western Society of Engineers and presented a paper to the Society on "Design of Railway Locomotive Terminals" on March 23, 1923.
As an inventor Krausch developed and patented a number of railroad-related mechanical devices, both alone and with E.F. Weber, assistant engineer, and with Robert Elder.
His personal and social life was centered around La Grange, Illinois. Krausch married Clara Ann Shordiche of La Grange on January 5, 1891. He was a member of the board of trustees of the Village of La Grange from 1909. He was a Republican, an Episcopalian, a Mason, and a member of the Grand Royal Arch Chapter at La Grange. His involvement at Emmanuel Episcopal Church involved serving on its building committee following destruction of the old church to fire. He belonged to the Chicago Engineers' Club, the Suburban Club of La Grange, and the Edgewood Golf Club. Krausch died at his home in La Grange on December 9, 1929.
Works.
Structures which Krausch is credited with planning for the CB&Q and other railroads noted include:
Patents.
Patents received, alone and with others, included:


Lake Shore Subdivision

The Lake Shore Subdivision is a railroad line owned by CSX Transportation in the U.S. states of New York and Pennsylvania. The line runs from Buffalo, New York, southwest along the shore of Lake Erie to Erie, Pennsylvania, along the former New York Central Railroad main line.
At its east end, the Lake Shore Subdivision becomes the Buffalo Terminal Subdivision; the west end is west of downtown Erie, where the Erie West Subdivision begins.
Amtrak's "Lake Shore Limited" uses the Lake Shore Subdivision.
In the CSX Transportation Albany Division Timetable #6 effective October 15, 2010 it shows the Buffalo Terminal Subdivision extending south from Buffalo, New York to Hamburg, New York where it continues west as the Erie West Subdivision of the Great Lakes Division, thus eliminating the Lake Shore Subdivision.
History.
The line was built by two companies – the Buffalo and State Line Railroad in New York and the Erie and North East Railroad in Pennsylvania – and opened in 1852. Through mergers, leases, and takeovers, it became part of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway, New York Central Railroad, and Conrail. When Conrail was broken up in 1999, the main line east of Cleveland, including the Lake Shore Subdivision, was assigned to CSX.


Norristown High Speed Line

The Norristown High Speed Line (NHSL, also called the Purple Line, the P&W, or the Route 100) is a interurban light rapid transit line operated by SEPTA, running between the 69th Street Transportation Center in Upper Darby and the Norristown Transportation Center in Norristown, Pennsylvania, United States. The rail line runs entirely on its own right-of-way, inherited from the original Philadelphia and Western Railroad line (still referred to by locals as the "old P&W" or as Route 100). In 2018, the Norristown High Speed Line had an average weekday ridership of over 10,000 passengers.
The Norristown High Speed Line is unique in its combination of transportation technologies. Originally chartered as a Class I (steam) railroad, the line is fully grade separated, collects power from a third rail, and has high-level platforms common to rapid transit systems or commuter rail systems such as New York City's Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad, but has onboard fare collection, mostly single-car operation, and frequent stops more common to light rail systems. Previously, the Norristown High Speed Line was considered to be a heavy rail line, according to a 2008 SEPTA budget report; however, the line is currently considered an interurban heavy rail line, according to a 2009 SEPTA business plan, and subsequent capital budgets. It has also been categorized by the American Public Transportation Association as "Intermodal High Speed rapid rail transit".
The purple color-coded line was formerly known simply as Route 100, but was officially changed to its current name in September 2009 as part of a customer service initiative by SEPTA. The line has been subject to multiple accidents in recent years. In August 2017, there was a crash involving an unoccupied railcar at 69th Street Terminal that injured more than 40 people. As a result, the maximum operating speed on the line was decreased to 55 mph. Another crash occurred near an Ardmore stop on January 26, 1987 injuring 19. The operator tested positive for drugs and was convicted on reckless endangerment. Another crash occurred on July 6, 2012 between Beachwood-Brookline and Penfield stations when the cars detached and came back together injuring 2.
History.
The Norristown High Speed Line began service in 1907 as the Philadelphia and Western Railroad (P&W), which ran from the present 69th Street Terminal in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania to a converted farmhouse station in Strafford, Pennsylvania. In 1911, the line was extended west to a new Strafford P&W station adjacent to the Pennsylvania Railroad's Strafford station, allowing easy interchange between the two lines. In 1912, a branch was constructed from Villanova Junction, west of the existing Villanova station, to Norristown. When the newly built branch quickly attracted more ridership than the Strafford main line, the Norristown section became the main line and the Strafford stretch was demoted to branch status; in the mid-1930s, the Strafford spur was narrowed to a single track for its last between the Wayne-St. Davids and Strafford stations, while the Norristown line received a sleek new art deco terminus at Main and Swede Streets.
Lehigh Valley connection.
From Norristown, the P&W RR connected its tracks with the Lehigh Valley Transit Liberty Bell Route to provide direct electric train service from 69th St. Terminal to Allentown, Pennsylvania. However, in 1951, the Lehigh Valley Transit Company ended its service on the Liberty Bell Route, and in 1953 the company ended all its remaining rail service. Two years later, the P&W RR was taken over by the Philadelphia Suburban Transportation Company (PSTC), which was more popularly known as the Red Arrow Lines. In 1956, the PSTC abandoned the original branch between Villanova and Strafford, leaving only electric MU train service between 69th Street and Norristown, as it is today. Part of the Strafford branch right of way has been converted into the Radnor Trail. The PSTC was absorbed into SEPTA in 1970, eliminating the original railroad charter and immediately becoming the "Norristown High-Speed Line "Trolley"", officially known as Route 100.
Ridership.
Ridership on the Norristown Line peaked in 2015 at 3,429,300. The previous peak came in 2014 with 3,147,209 trips. Prior to this modern escalation in ridership the line's ridership was highest in 1973 at 2.86 million annual linked trips, and again in 1980 with 2.579 million annual linked trips. Ridership statistics for fiscal years 2000 and later are from SEPTA annual service plans. Data for years 1972 to 1997 are from the SEPTA 1997 ridership census. There may be some discrepancy in how the ridership is reported since the annual service plans report total unlinked trips, while the ridership census uses linked trips, which may exclude passengers transferring from other lines.
Station names.
Effective June 14, 2010, SEPTA changed the names of four stations to reflect the streets on which they were located. Township Line Road (formerly West Overbrook Station), Roberts Road (formerly Rosemont Station), Stadium – Ithan Avenue (formerly Stadium Station) and DeKalb Street (formerly King Manor Station).
Closure of Schuylkill River bridge for repairs.
In summer 2013, SEPTA closed the bridge (the Bridgeport Viaduct) carrying the Norristown High Speed Line over the Schuylkill River for four months. The bridge, which was built in 1911, had been deteriorating and needed to be rebuilt at a cost upwards of $30 million, though this repair project was budgeted at $7.5 million. As a result of closing the bridge, buses were used to transport passengers between the Bridgeport station and the Norristown Transportation Center. The bridge was reopened in November 2013. The remaining $30 million renovation of the entire bridge structure is currently unscheduled.
Service.
The fare for a single ride as of January 2020 is $2.50 using cash or $2.00 using the Travel Wallet feature on a SEPTA Key card. Until September 1, 2014, the line used a "pay-as-you-exit" fare collection system on trains towards 69th Street Transportation Center. As part of a general change on several routes approaching 69th Street, passengers now pay onboard upon entering the train. Starting February 22, 2021, fares at 69th Street Transportation Center and Norristown Transportation Center are collected from station turnstiles at all times.
The service runs seven days a week, from about 5:00 am to 1:00 am. Local trains from 69th Street to Norristown stop at all 22 stations, and the trip lasts approximately 32 minutes. Occasionally, local trains may run only between 69th Street and Bryn Mawr, stopping at ten stations, or 69th Street and Hughes Park, stopping at 18 stations.
During weekday peak periods (6:00–9:00 AM, 2:15–6:45 PM), the Norristown High Speed Line features express and limited services, which stop only at select stations, therefore decreasing travel time between 69th Street and Norristown. Norristown Express service, denoted by red destination signs, travels between 69th Street and Norristown in approximately 26 minutes, and stops at 17 stations. Norristown Limited service, denoted by blue destination signs, travels between 69th Street and Norristown in approximately 22 minutes, stopping at only eight stations. All trains share the same two tracks, so a limited leaving Norristown, for example, will be immediately followed by a local, which stops at more stations, and therefore is spaced farther from the previous train. The next limited will catch up with it. Similarly, a local may leave Bryn Mawr right after an express stops there, and gets to 69th Street just before the next express or limited catches up with it.
A former Hughes Park Express service, was denoted by green destination signs, traveled nonstop from 69th Street to Beechwood–Brookline, and made all stops from there to Hughes Park in approximately 22 minutes.
Station list.
Before December 7, 2020, if passengers wanted to board the train at the station, they would have to press a button on the platform, that turns on a light, that tells the engineer to stop at the station (this was not the case at terminals). Only if the train is scheduled to stop at the station (see below), will it will stop (otherwise it will not, despite the person hitting the button). After December 7, 2020 if passengers want to board the train at the station they have to be physically visible to the engineer for the train to stop (this is the same as on a light rail or tram/trolley line). In both cases detraining passengers must press a button on board to request the train to stop.
King of Prussia Spur.
In 2013, it was proposed to create a branch off the Norristown High Speed Line to serve the King of Prussia mall, Valley Forge office parks, and the Valley Forge Casino Resort. Many possible routes were planned for this extension, including one following US 202 from Norristown to King of Prussia, another following a utility right-of-way paralleling US 202 and the Pennsylvania Turnpike, and another following the utility right-of-way and Gulph Road. In 2014, SEPTA estimated that the expansion would cost between $500 million to $650 million, and was at least eight years away.
On February 29, 2016, SEPTA announced which of those routes it would prefer as being most cost-efficient and environmentally friendly. The route will branch off from the main route between Hughes Park and DeKalb Street, and will follow a PECO transmission line right-of-way from the wye junction to the Pennsylvania Turnpike. From there, it will run parallel to the Pennsylvania Turnpike until it reaches the King of Prussia mall. It will then follow Mall Boulevard, before crossing the Turnpike and following First Avenue. Stations will be located at Henderson Road, Allendale Road, Mall Boulevard, at the intersection of First and Clark avenues in the King of Prussia Business Park, and on First Avenue near the Valley Forge Casino Resort.
On January 25, 2018, the SEPTA board approved a final route alignment, selecting the locally preferred routing from among the options studied in the project's draft environmental impact statement (EIS). The line was estimated to cost between $1 billion and $1.2 billion, with ridership estimated at 9,500 daily by 2040.<ref name="1/18 routing"></ref> In January, 2019, SEPTA engaged the engineering firm HNTB to design Phase I of the project. On December 1, 2020, SEPTA held a meeting to update the proposed alignment. The final environmental impact statement is planned to be submitted to the Federal Transit Administration in early 2021. Construction on the spur to King of Prussia is projected to cost $2 billion and service is expected to begin between 2025 and 2027.
Five new stations will be added to the line as follows:


Trolley park

In the United States, trolley parks, which started in the 19th century, were picnic and recreation areas along or at the ends of streetcar lines in most of the larger cities. These were precursors to amusement parks. Trolley parks were often created by the streetcar companies to give people a reason to use their services on weekends.
The parks originally consisted of picnic groves and pavilions, and often held events such as dances, concerts and fireworks. Many eventually added features such as swimming pools, carousels, Ferris wheels, roller coasters, sports fields, boats rides, restaurants and other resort facilities to become amusement parks. Various sources report the existence of between 1,500 and 2,000 amusement parks in the United States by 1919.
Coney Island.
One such location was Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York, where a horse-drawn street car line brought pleasure seekers to the beach beginning in 1829. In 1875, a million passengers rode the Coney Island Railroad, and in 1876 two million reached Coney Island. Hotels and amusements were built to accommodate both the upper-classes and the working-class. The first carousel was installed in the 1870s, the first Switchback Railway in 1881. It wasn't until 1895 that the first permanent amusement park in North America opened: Sea Lion Park at Coney Island. This park was one of the first to charge admission for entrance to the park in addition to selling tickets for rides within the park.
In 1897, it was joined by Steeplechase Park, the first of three major amusement parks that would open in the area. George Tilyou designed the park to provide thrills and sweep away the restraints of the Victorian crowds. The combination of the nearby population center of New York City and the ease of access to the area made Coney Island the embodiment of the American amusement park. In addition there was Luna Park (opened in 1903) and Dreamland (opened in 1904). Coney Island was a huge success, and by 1910 attendance on a Sunday could reach a million people.
Trolley parks decline.
By the early 20th century, there were hundreds of amusement parks, many of them starting as trolley parks, in operation around the USA. Every major city boasted one or more parks, often based on (or named) Coney Island, Luna Park, or Dreamland. This began the era of the “golden age” of amusement parks that reigned until the late 1920s. This was an era when the number of hours worked was reduced, while the amount of disposable income rose. The amusement parks reflected the mechanization and efficiency of industrialization, while serving as a source of fantasy and escape from real life.
With the increasing number of automobiles in use, urban trolley parks gradually declined, due to lack of parking and changing demographics in the urban areas. Although the automobile provided people with more options for satisfying their entertainment needs, amusement parks that were accessible by car continued to be successful and new parks were developed. It was urban trolley parks that saw declining attendance. By the end of the 1920s, amusement parks were to suffer steep declines for various reasons, particularly the Great Depression.