Mountain railroads....

[JanOlov]

Of those that crossed the mountains on their way to the west coast, which had the the toughest and steepest route to get there?

[VAPEURCHAPELON]

Don't know which one was the steepest, but good chances have the SANTA FE with its Cajon Pass, and D&RGW with its Tennessie Pass, both of these are well above 3% steep. Hope another one will give a more competent reply.

[IRONROOSTER]

What about the Colorado Midland?

Enjoy

Paul 

[Isambard]

Of those that crossed the mountains on their way to the west coast, which had the the toughest and steepest route to get there?

If you can find it, Trains magazine, issue April 2004, featured mountain railroads and shows the elevation profiles for eastern, central and western railroads in the U.S. and Canada. A quick look shows the Souther Pacific line from Portland to LA with grades of 3.3% through the Siskiyous mountains. According to Trains, SP pulled out of the Siskiyous in 1993, leasing the line to Central Oregon and Pacific. A November 2003 fire and cave-in closed the Siskiyous Summit tunnel. Several lines have/had 3% grades - Santa Fe's Raton Pass route and Rio Grande's Tennessee Pass.

[JanOlov]

Cheers fellas....

[wjstix]

Great Northern often boasted they had the lowest elevation crossing of the Rockies. However, they achieved that largely by laying tracks on the banks of streams and rivers - which often flooded in the spring, causing them to have to detour trains over neighboring rival Northern Pacific.

As NP guys used to say, the NP may have been higher but it was also a lot drier !!

[leighant]

David Moffat's Denver, Northwestern and Pacific temporary route over Rollins Pass before the Moffat Tunnel was completed.  aka Denver & Salt Lake.

a few links:

http://www.colorado.gov/dpa/doit/archives/tour/pcmo.htm

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/hawp:@field(NUMBER+@band(codhawp+00071617))