Super, an incredible video. I grew up about ten miles away from Mack, Colorado, and although I never saw the Uintah Railway operate, I did see them take the water tanks off of one of the Baldwin articulated locomotives, add a tender, and ship it to another American railroad for operation. There is also a fantasy UA-cam video of a ride on the Uintah Railway that is pretty good. Hello from the Tracy Mountain Railway in Colorado. P.S. Yes, Uintah Railway fans, I have a section of track that has 66° curves and a 7.5% grade, up to the fiddle yard and a sugar and lumber mill. 💙 T.E.N.
Hi Tracy, Rodger Polley made 2 Uintah Railway pictorials. Excellent stories there and photos. I purchased my collection of slides off ebay and used some for this video with my camera photos taken along the railbed.
Went with friends 7 years ago from Mack, CO. following the rail over Baxter Pass to Bonanza, Ut. Stopping to look at all the different mine sites. Found a rail spike at the Black Dragon Mine. So much history. Those people were tough. Much respect.
Roger Polly, 2 volumes of the railway were so fine I had nothing better to work toward. never continued a full story beyond Atchee. The mines were still open, and tempting to document, just ran out of sand.
I was over in Georgetown last year, and the Shay locomotive was on line on the Grorgetown Loop. Wow, what a sight and sound that sidewinder was making...
Where was the photo at 10:52 taken. The vegetation doesn't line up with anything on the east side...maybe on the western side??? Back in the day I rode my mountain bike to the top of Baxter Pass a half dozen times. Grunt!! The steep curve usually defeated me.
Wow! To see another perspective on one of the most interesting railways in the U.S. is simply amazing! Thank you for this video! I am a fan of the old railway. I have found several of the old narrow gauge spikes over the years just laying on the old road going over Baxter Pass. I love our history.
I dont mean to be so off topic but does any of you know a tool to get back into an Instagram account?? I was stupid lost the account password. I would appreciate any tricks you can offer me
@Kobe Tate Thanks so much for your reply. I got to the site on google and I'm trying it out now. Looks like it's gonna take quite some time so I will reply here later when my account password hopefully is recovered.
Interesting video. Thanks. Photos of the Shays show they were all 2 truck, at least the ones I have seen. By 1922 3 truck I was the standard I think. Why didn't Uintah have any 3 truck shays? Curvature? I would think a 3 truck Shay could negotiate the curves . The photo at Atchee in this video shows quite a few locos at Atchee. Why did they have so many locos unless they ran a lot of trains or used helpers on all the trains? How many trains a day did Uintah run? Thanks.
No 3 truck Shays because the URY company was buying the big locomotives engines #50 & #51 as replacements for the Shays. Shays were too slow, so Baxter Pass was the only place they worked. Engines 50 & 51 could climb Baxter Pass and haul more Gilsonite. On the first attempt #50 derailed on the tight curve, after reconstruction of the frame it crawled over the Pass without trouble, the shays were retired. Atchee is where the shops were, and repairs were made. They constructed a locomotive there too.
My great grandmother lived in the hotel at mack, she converted half of it into a rock shop. We visited her often and when she bought it they found alot of photos that were used in this documentary in the attic. Also found was the guest logbook for the hotel, i met her father who was 100 years old at the time (i was 13) and he showed me in that guestbook his signature from when he stayed there when he was a boy
Thanks for your reply. I remember her and the rock shop was filled with treasures. I have a petrified fish and large shark tooth she collected from her digs on Dougls Pass. I was amazed the roof was so straight and new owners years later allowed me to venture into the attic with my camera for a look.
@dadcolo do you have contact information on the new owners? There was a Kelly's rock shop sign out front of the hotel I would like to locate and possibly buy it for my father for a father's day gift
Such a cool railroad. Sad so little of the towns and artifacts exist and most have been destroyed or carried off. Hoping some day I have the space to model this railroad and as a bonus I won't need to build many trees, LOL. ;)
The machine shop engine building, some rail beds, soon we won't even know one existed if not for books and documentation. Roger Polly has 2 volumes about it. Books out of print long time, but available on ebay once in a while.
#50 an #51 were sold out of the US, ran untill they could not run any more, then stripped of parts. A group of US RR people contacted the owners and were going to purchase the remains of the locomotives to bring them back to the US. Some of the Uintah Shays are scrapped, others were sold, Nevada has purchased one of the Baldwin engines, and run it on their track.
hi Calvin, great vid, i'm building the railway in a 3d simulator and was surprised to see the detailed maps you have for Mack, i have DRGW ones from the colorado railway museum which are nowhere near as detailed, can you tell me where you got the one in your video ? As it is , they conform what i've done , but i'd like to get a copy of the original do they extend past mack further into the uintah route ?
Museum of Western Colorado, Grand Junction has the orginals used in the Books. The maps go to the end of the line, 54 miles, and side tracks to the mines.
No, I wish i had continued. When I saw Roger Pollys URY Pictorals volume ! & 2 they took the wind out of my sails, I backed away from the project thinking I would get better equipment and vehicle to do Atchee to the end of the line, but plans change without asking your permission.
Super, an incredible video. I grew up about ten miles away from Mack, Colorado, and although I never saw the Uintah Railway operate, I did see them take the water tanks off of one of the Baldwin articulated locomotives, add a tender, and ship it to another American railroad for operation. There is also a fantasy UA-cam video of a ride on the Uintah Railway that is pretty good. Hello from the Tracy Mountain Railway in Colorado. P.S. Yes, Uintah Railway fans, I have a section of track that has 66° curves and a 7.5% grade, up to the fiddle yard and a sugar and lumber mill. 💙 T.E.N.
Hi Tracy, Rodger Polley made 2 Uintah Railway pictorials. Excellent stories there and photos. I purchased my collection of slides off ebay and used some for this video with my camera photos taken along the railbed.
Nice, thank you for sharing
Went with friends 7 years ago from Mack, CO. following the rail over Baxter Pass to Bonanza, Ut.
Stopping to look at all the different mine sites. Found a rail spike at the Black Dragon Mine. So much history. Those people were tough. Much respect.
Great seeing the history.
Roger Polly, 2 volumes of the railway were so fine I had nothing better to work toward. never continued a full story beyond Atchee. The mines were still open, and tempting to document, just ran out of sand.
Great filming ,have sent it to my freind frank polzin in Montrose
Do it, not post it🤣
I enjoyed watching this today. Time marches on but sights and sounds of steam railroads will always be on my mind.
I was over in Georgetown last year, and the Shay locomotive was on line on the Grorgetown Loop. Wow, what a sight and sound that sidewinder was making...
Great job!! Thanks for doing it.
This video was awesome! Thank you for your hard work!
Where was the photo at 10:52 taken. The vegetation doesn't line up with anything on the east side...maybe on the western side???
Back in the day I rode my mountain bike to the top of Baxter Pass a half dozen times. Grunt!! The steep curve usually defeated me.
Yes, that was over the top on the western side of the pass
Wow! To see another perspective on one of the most interesting railways in the U.S. is simply amazing! Thank you for this video! I am a fan of the old railway. I have found several of the old narrow gauge spikes over the years just laying on the old road going over Baxter Pass. I love our history.
I dont mean to be so off topic but does any of you know a tool to get back into an Instagram account??
I was stupid lost the account password. I would appreciate any tricks you can offer me
@Tristan Paul Instablaster :)
@Kobe Tate Thanks so much for your reply. I got to the site on google and I'm trying it out now.
Looks like it's gonna take quite some time so I will reply here later when my account password hopefully is recovered.
Interesting video. Thanks. Photos of the Shays show they were all 2 truck, at least the ones I have seen. By 1922 3 truck I was the standard I think. Why didn't Uintah have any 3 truck shays? Curvature? I would think a 3 truck Shay could negotiate the curves . The photo at Atchee in this video shows quite a few locos at Atchee. Why did they have so many locos unless they ran a lot of trains or used helpers on all the trains? How many trains a day did Uintah run? Thanks.
No 3 truck Shays because the URY company was buying the big locomotives engines #50 & #51 as replacements for the Shays. Shays were too slow, so Baxter Pass was the only place they worked. Engines 50 & 51 could climb Baxter Pass and haul more Gilsonite. On the first attempt #50 derailed on the tight curve, after reconstruction of the frame it crawled over the Pass without trouble, the shays were retired. Atchee is where the shops were, and repairs were made. They constructed a locomotive there too.
My great grandmother lived in the hotel at mack, she converted half of it into a rock shop. We visited her often and when she bought it they found alot of photos that were used in this documentary in the attic. Also found was the guest logbook for the hotel, i met her father who was 100 years old at the time (i was 13) and he showed me in that guestbook his signature from when he stayed there when he was a boy
Thanks for your reply. I remember her and the rock shop was filled with treasures. I have a petrified fish and large shark tooth she collected from her digs on Dougls Pass. I was amazed the roof was so straight and new owners years later allowed me to venture into the attic with my camera for a look.
@dadcolo do you have contact information on the new owners? There was a Kelly's rock shop sign out front of the hotel I would like to locate and possibly buy it for my father for a father's day gift
Nice job! Very interesting!
Such a cool railroad. Sad so little of the towns and artifacts exist and most have been destroyed or carried off. Hoping some day I have the space to model this railroad and as a bonus I won't need to build many trees, LOL. ;)
The machine shop engine building, some rail beds, soon we won't even know one existed if not for books and documentation. Roger Polly has 2 volumes about it. Books out of print long time, but available on ebay once in a while.
I have the LGB of the mallet are any of the locomotives still in existence ???
#50 an #51 were sold out of the US, ran untill they could not run any more, then stripped of parts. A group of US RR people contacted the owners and were going to purchase the remains of the locomotives to bring them back to the US. Some of the Uintah Shays are scrapped, others were sold, Nevada has purchased one of the Baldwin engines, and run it on their track.
I know that one of the articulated locomotives was stripped of its water tanks, got a tender, and was sent to operate on another US railroad. 💙 T.E.N.
hi Calvin, great vid, i'm building the railway in a 3d simulator and was surprised to see the detailed maps you have for Mack, i have DRGW ones from the colorado railway museum which are nowhere near as detailed, can you tell me where you got the one in your video ? As it is , they conform what i've done , but i'd like to get a copy of the original do they extend past mack further into the uintah route ?
Museum of Western Colorado, Grand Junction has the orginals used in the Books. The maps go to the end of the line, 54 miles, and side tracks to the mines.
Did you do a full length CD? I would be VERY interested in a copy.
No, I wish i had continued. When I saw Roger Pollys URY Pictorals volume ! & 2 they took the wind out of my sails, I backed away from the project thinking I would get better equipment and vehicle to do Atchee to the end of the line, but plans change without asking your permission.
I am surprised that the Uintah used only two truck shays when larger 3 truck shays would have had twice the ability and more range.
I'm sure money had alot to do with the early equipment they had.
I think the reason was that the loaded trains ran downhill, so not so much power was needed