On September 5, 1995, a Southern Pacific coal train grinds up the steep 3% grade of Tennessee Pass at Mitchell, Colorado, in a view of “Kindig’s Curve.” On the point of this 105-car unit train are four new SP AC4400CWs, with two manned helper sets cut into the train further back, each with another trio of AC4400CWs. The middle set is 58 cars back, barely seen above the rear of the lead locomotive, and the second helper set is cut in 15 cars from the rear of the train. That’s 44,000 horsepower in a great show against gravity! And that show has been going on for years at this point—that “black” soil I’m standing on, seen on the hillside below left—are cinders left from the days that Rio Grande steam locomotives struggled up the same grade. Too bad nothing does today…
