Eureka Ghost Rail: Tintic Range Railroad

Old Jeeper

EU Contributor
Eureka Ghost Rail: Tintic Range Railroad (TRR)

The Tintic Range Railroad branch was built in 1891 to service the mines in Eureka. It started at the existing track in Springville and went south to Santaquin then turned west to Elberta. From Elberta it went up Pinion Canyon and Homansville Canyon and ended in Eureka. 39 miles total. A couple of years later it was extended 4 miles to Mammoth and Silver City. The extension to Silver City was abandoned in 1943. The line from Pearl Junction, a couple of miles west of Elberta, to Eureka was abandoned somewhere around 1966 or '67. This is about the 11 mile section between Pearl and Eureka.

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1897 Map

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2015 Eastern Side Map

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2015 Western Side Map

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1949 Map

At Pearl Junction the rails split, south to Burgin/Dividend area and north to Eureka. The rails are still in place to Burgin but have been pulled up to Eureka. I started where the rails ended and headed north for Tunnel 1.

TUNNEL 1:

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Pearl

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Rails end at Pearl

Tunnel 1 is 235 ft. long and is open and can be driven through.

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Tunnel 1

Moving on about 3/4 a mile was a siding named Laguna. There's some concrete foundations there. Maybe for a loading platform?

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Laguna Siding Ruins

About 3/4 of a mile beyond Laguna you come to where the Double Circle Loop used to be. It must have been quite a site watching the trains chugging around it. I found a picture from around 1870.

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C. R. Savage photo

I've read a couple of theories on what happened to the trestle. One story is it caught fire and they opted not to replace it while another claims that the newer, more powerful, locomotives were too heavy for the trestle, either way it was bypassed in 1940. The purple line on my 2015 east map is the bypass. The abutments are still there along with the concrete foundations for the supports.

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Double Circle Loop

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Abutments

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75 (or 125?) year old ties where the loop crossed the road

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Hard to see but the original and bypass road beds are in the background and the beginning of the loop is in the foreground.

TUNNEL 2:

A little more than 2 miles above the trestle is Tunnel 2. It's 449 feet long but both ends have been sealed. I wasn't able to drive to the eastern end because of some rock fall but I could to the west end. It's an easy walk to the other side from the west end.

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Tunnel 2

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East entrance

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Western exit

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An old wooden culvert

The 1949 map shows another siding between Tunnels 2 & 3 but I didn't see any thing. So I continued on to Tunnel 3.

TUNNEL 3:

Tunnel 3 was 417 feet long but in 1924 the supporting timbers caught fire. The railroad declared the tunnel unsafe and cut a bypass around the hill. It has collapsed at both ends.

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Tunnel 3

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East entrance

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West exit

From Tunnel 3 I follow the rail bed through Homansville Canyon, across the canyon is Hiway 6. The 1992 (my 2015 west) map says there is a RGW Tunnel there. If they're thinking there's a Rio Grand Western railroad tunnel there, they're wrong. Or perhaps it refers to a mine tunnel. There is a mine above the rail bed but I didn't stop to check it out.
I pass by the ghost town of Homansville (http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/ut/homansville.html) before arriving at the siding called Saddle. Saddle has quite a bit of concrete ruins scattered about.

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Saddle

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Ruins


After Saddle I made my way to the edge of town where I lost all trace of the rail bed so I called it quits there.

For more information I recommend the book Utah Ghost Rails by Stephen L Carr or visit these web sites:

Further Reading/Links/Resources:
Book: Historical Guide to Utah Ghost Towns - Stephen L. Carr
Book: Utah Ghost Rails - Stephen L. Carr & Robert W. Edwards
Book: Faith, Hope and Prosperity: The Tintic Mining District - Philip F. Notarianni
http://www.drgw.net/info/TinticBranch
http://www.expeditionutah.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3963
http://www.expeditionutah.com/forum/showthread.php?t=384
Various area Ghost Town sites
http://utahrails.net/articles/tintic.php
 
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Old Jeeper

EU Contributor
A lot of this grade can still be driven.. but many spots get real tight, like ATV tight.

True. I drove my 78 CJ7, which is not much bigger that todays ATV's, on it. If the road was not directly on the rail bed I walked it. My guess is I walked half of it.
 

Kevin B.

EU Contributor
That pic of the trestle is awesome. I need to print that out and go stand there. Brian, we drove right through the middle of that loop and didn't notice.
 
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Jeeper

Member
Excited to see more. I think I am going to go back on a dirt bike and see if I can follow the whole route..
 

Old Jeeper

EU Contributor
Excited to see more. I think I am going to go back on a dirt bike and see if I can follow the whole route..

That was originally my plan too and now that I know the area better I'd still like to go with my bike. Lots of trails down there.
 

LFNTMS

Supporting Member
Supporter
Cool stuff. Have only been out that way a few times and barely grazed what's there. Makes me want to go back. Thanks :D
 

Maxterra

Member
Great info!
Love that area and now want to explore some more!

Thanks for the info and great pictures!

(whenever you're ready for another trip Rob & John...)

Dave
 

IM1RU

EU Contributor & Supporting Member
Supporter
Today was the day for me until Jan. But then I have some time again..... But yes, lets go please.
 

Jeeper

Member
Derek and I headed out about 1pm to try to ride this totally awesome ghost rail. We headed to Elberta, and were unloaded in no time. We started right were the RR crossed Redwood Rd, just north of the stop sign in Elberta.
The RR is 'gated' off just a short ways from the road (looks to be cattle keeper fencing)
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We turned our handle bars West and rode right next to the tracks for about 1/2 mile before we hit another gate that crossed the tracks which was also next to a large corral area.
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We made it around the corrals, and found a culvert that ran under the tracks
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Just a short jaunt later we crossed the first trestle bridge
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The tracks split into multiple directions a little further west, which I believe is 'Pearl'. One track headed south, the other went north/west. We went west.

After a bit of a ride we made it to the first tunnel
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Jeeper

Member
We continued along the RR grade until we made it where they made a circle around themselves. We rode straight up the mountain to the north end of where the trestle stated.
looking south from the north side:
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We 'circled' :D around to the south end of the trustle bridge. The trees have all been 'chained', or ripped out. Can someone tell me why?

we made it almost all the way to the south side on the bikes, but there was some funny looking stuff hanging in the tree's so we opted to walk around it..
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This is looking North from the south side
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We continued on the way, determined to stay on the actual grade. The next leg of the journey, until the grade crosses the road again was the most unused portion we rode. very little 'trail' left, with just coyote tracks in the snow to lead the way.
 
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Jeeper

Member
We continued on our way along the grade. We made it to tunnel 2. Still blocked :rolleyes:

We rode to the East side as well. The ground slopes towards the tunnel, and has no water exit, so the ground was super squishy and muddy.
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We followed the grade around the mountain, alongside HWY 6 below lime peak. The RR is behind private gates for a bit as it makes it's loop through saddle/holmansville, but we were able to pick it up just a little further west.
We stayed on the grade until we hit the fence for the School in Eureka.

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We stopped into the gas station for just a quick second, and headed back the way we came. The ride was a total blast. It was so much fun to make out the old grade and follow that bit of history.

Thanks again to Old Jeeper for the information that allowed us to follow the trail.
We plan to run it again in the future.
 
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