This is why, six years after the end of steam, fans still head for Union Pacific’s Sherman Hill. On September 25, 1965, GTEL 11 leads a GP30-DD35-DD35B-DD35B combination – some 25,750 hp. in all – down from Hermosa Tunnel toward Laramie. In the distance the 8014-foot summit is the highest point on the transcontinental railroad. Once upon a time this land was much higher and more rugged: Over the ages erosion has ground it down to the familiar jumble of pink granite bocks that offered builders of the Union Pacific a reasonably easy passage to the west.
