Raton Pass on the Santa Fe Railway

I am beginning this series of cards with a comparison of the same location several years apart. The first card is a picture of the entrance to Raton Tunnel - opened on Sept 1, 1879 by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Company. It is says at the bottom of the card that it is the highest point on the Santa Fe at 7,500 feet above sea level. It is actually closer to 7,600 feet.

This card was published by Fred Harvey. The date on the back is not extremely clear but I imagine that it was mailed on November 11, 1910. The tunnel is located about 100 miles northeast of Santa Fe, New Mexico on the Colorado and New Mexico border; there is a post at the east end of the tunnel entrance to let you know that you have entered New Mexico. From all of my searching, the best I can figure out is that the trains coming out of this tunnel are bound for the West. I found a website that says that the Santa Fe rails followed the “Old Santa Fe Trail” up and through the Raton Pass. Being a rather steep grade, Santa Fe built some switchbacks to get up the hill, then decided that a funnel would be much better. This tunnel is 2,041 feet long, 19 feet high, and 14 feet wide. It was sealed up in 1949 no longer to be used because…

This next card shows the tunnel after the second line was added in 1909. The tunnel has been twinned. The new one is 2,678 feet long. It reduced the grade of the rail line from 3.5 to 3%. This postcard is printed by the Detroit Publishing Company. They printed all of Fred Harvey’s cards using the copyrighted “PHOSTINT” method between 1901 and 1932. At the bottom of the line that divides the address from the message are the letters XXII – I wonder if this is a code for being printed in 1922???