Where silence now reigns At a place today where all you hear is wind off lofty peaks and coyote yelps, was once a place where trains fought grades up a 10,221-foot mountain pass. On July 20, 1990, a Rio Grande freight climbs the east slope of Tennessee Pass at Keeldar, Colorado. Tunnel Motor No. 5349 leads a SD50, a former Conrail GP40 and a Cotton Belt SD45T-2 as power the westbound train. The Continental Divide is visible from this very scenic location north of Leadville, and includes two of Colorado’s highest peaks. Mount Elbert, at 14,433 feet, is the Rocky Mountain’s highest peak and is located directly above the cab of the second locomotive. The broad 14,421-foot summit of Mount Massive is the highest mountain in the range to the right in this view.
