A westbound Rio Grande freight drifts downgrade after clearing one of the two newest tunnels on the system. The twin tunnels in the distance were cut into that mountain after the disastrous Thistle mudslide of April, 1983. The area where the small valley ends at the upper right is a 220 foot high earthen dam, which is the bulk of the material from the slide. To the right of the train is the original alignment of US Route 6, as well as the Spanish Fork and the pre-1983 Rio Grande right of way, now permanently sealed off by that massive wall of earth. Tremendous feats of engineering and construction allowed the upper portion of the Spanish Fork to bypass the slide before it spilled over, allowed the railroad reroute to be reopened in less than three months, and allowed Highway 6, which passes through the huge cut in the upper left of the photo, to open just before year’s end.
