the first revenue train ran from Lara- mie to Walden with a long cut of empty coal hoppers. The “Snowy Range Route” quickly became popular with the railfan community, as the primary power was a set of former Alaska Railroad F-units. The EMD covered wagons were leased from Mountain Diesel Transportation, and were later purchased outright by WYCO. The trio, consisting of FP7As No. 1510 and No. 1512, along with F7B No. 1511, provided a nice contrast against the stark Wyoming plains. And once the trio tackled the Albany switchbacks in the Medicine Bow mountains, it got even better.
Unstable Traffic
bon dioxide, lumber, and wood chips, which
The traffic base consisted of coal, car- originated from Walden and
Brownlee in the North Park area of Colo-
RIGHT: On September 10, 1996, No. 6798 is leading 24 empty ore jennies to be loaded at Northgate, Co, as it drifts past Milepost 73, towards King’s Cañon, Colo.
BELOW: At this point in time, all the fluorspar at Northgate, Colo., has been removed and the only task left is clean-up trains loaded with salvaged 133-pound jointed rail from the Walden to Northgate segment. Here, No. 6323 is approaching Miller siding on a beautiful October 11 day.
rado. The Wyoming segment did not pro- vide any traffic except a passenger ex- cursion operation. Initially, the F-units were used in freight service, but crews quickly discovered they were no match for the steep grades. The first test for trains leaving Walden was a pesky 1.7 percent grade from Northgate to Camp, which allowed the railroad to climb out of the North Park area. WYCO turned to leasing Union Pacific six-axle pow- er in the form of SD40-2s. The F-units
were still used on occasion with shorter freight trains, but were mainly confined to the summer and early fall passenger excursion service between Laramie and Fox Park, or in some cases further south to Walden.
The railroad struggled to find a consis- tent traffic base from the beginning. The Louisiana Pacific sawmill in Walden, which provided lumber and wood chip cars, shut down in 1994. The passenger excursion business did not provide the
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