It was six o'clock the morning of September 25, 1975, when the alarm went off. However, we didn't need it because we were already awake and excitedly getting ready. This was our first day of a research trip for my model railroad of the Denver & Rio Grande Western's Third Subdivision, better known as the Tennessee Pass Line, or the Royal Gorge Route. We arrived at Denver the day before, rented a four-wheel-drive Jeep and headed off to Minturn. Colorado, late that evening. The sound of prime movers echoing off the canyon walls added to our excitement and we hardly got any sleep. The next morning we quickly ate breakfast and headed to the yard. My wife's hobby is landscape photography and mine is model railroading; this trip was a great opportunity to merge our hobbies. Minturn was a railroad town. Large numbers of helpers were stationed there to assist eastbound trains up the 3% ruling grade to Tennessee Pass. We walked over to the helper tracks where we met road foreman Keith Schaber, yardmaster Ryan Hads, engine hostler, Tim Kubic, and engineer Ken Lass. They were discussing the day's helper requirements. It was exciting to see EMD F-units operating on the line. My wife Janet surveyed the scene for likely photographs. As luck would have it an eastbound manifest was pulling up to the old passenger station where the crews changed. Before Ken needed to board the helpers, we had a chance to reminisce with him about the glory days when smoke from steam engines used to fill this valley. As duty called, he had to depart on engine number 5664 to help the eastbound up the grade.
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