SOUTHERN PACIFIC TRAIN #1-SNIP-C-19 ROLLS WEST OUT OF THE THISTLE TUNNEL - EAST OF CASTILLA, UTAH - APRIL 19, 1996
With two C&NW units and one UP, a westbound coal train rolls out of the tunnels at Thistle. These tunnels were built in 1983 after the "famous" Thistle Landslide wiped out the original railroad alignment through this area. Technically this would have been Thistle, Utah before the tunnels, but the landslide took out almost the entire town, so that town doesn't exist anymore except for a few ghost town type buildings that still stand. At one time the town was a junction as well as a helper base for trains that needed pushing over Soldier Summit. For whatever it's worth, government officials said it is the costliest landslide destruction in U.S. history.
SOUTHERN PACIFIC TRAIN #1-SNIP-C-19 ROLLS WEST OUT OF THE THISTLE TUNNEL - EAST OF CASTILLA, UTAH - APRIL 19, 1996
With two C&NW units and one UP, a westbound coal train rolls out of the tunnels at Thistle. These tunnels were built in 1983 after the "famous" Thistle Landslide wiped out the original railroad alignment through this area. Technically this would have been Thistle, Utah before the tunnels, but the landslide took out almost the entire town, so that town doesn't exist anymore except for a few ghost town type buildings that still stand. At one time the town was a junction as well as a helper base for trains that needed pushing over Soldier Summit. For whatever it's worth, government officials said it is the costliest landslide destruction in U.S. history.