Thompson Hill, part 1

: Google map showing the Thompson Hill

Popular photo opportunities/settings along the former Rio Grande mainline such as Blue Mountain Dr crossing near Clay, East Portal or US Hwy 24 overpass near Malta are all located in Colorado.

But Utah also has several settings where successive photographers were/are fond of. Volumes of great photos taken at such settings can be found on the web.

“Patrick’s Point” west of Floy is one of such a setting with a name: it is said to be named after photographer and former D&RGW officer Melvin N. Patrick[1, 2].

“Thompson Hill” east of Thompson is another such a setting with a name; this setting is also called “Thompson Cut” by some enthusiasts.

Historical photographers visited the “Thompson Hill”. Mac Owen captured Krauss-Maffei in 1962 according to the postcard. Ken Crist captured California Zephyr in 1965 and Ross Grenard captured eastbound freight in 1975 according to the book Rio Grande in Color Vol. 2: Utah. James Belmont also visited the setting in the 70’s[3]. Mike Danneman and Mark W. Hemphill seem visit the setting since the 80’s[4, 5].

Why so many photographers make the pilgrimage to this setting? Let’s have a look.

revised, Feb 1, 2020

[1] Danneman, Mike, (1996) Lunar-like landscape, Flickr;
[2] Patrick, Mel, (1980) RGZ west of Floy, Ut May ’80, Flickr;
[3] Belmont, James, (1979) untitled, RailPictures.net;
[4] Danneman, Mike, (1984) Cresting Thompson Hill, Flickr;
[5] Hemphill, Mark W., (1985) "The Unknown Rio Grande", Trains, Kalmbach Publishing Co.

: 1962 postcard photo by Mac Owen
: 1965 postcard photo by Ken Crist


いわゆる「お立ち台」の話題である。

Rio Grande沿線にも「お立ち台」が多く存在するが、そのほとんどはコロラド州にある。とはいえ、ユタ州にも固有名を冠するお立ち台がいくつかある。ここで取り上げる「Thompson Hill」もそのひとつで、ファンの間では「Thompson Cut」とも称せられる。

蒸気機関車時代に「Thompson Hill」で撮影された写真について、筆者はよく知らない。1960年代以降にここで撮影された写真は、印刷物などでよく目にする。その撮影者名をインターネットで検索すると、その多くは著作のある鉄道の専門家だ。何か好事家を引き寄せる魅力があるのだろう。へんぴなところでGoogle MapやEarthではその様子がよく分からないので訪れてみた。