Grab Shot

John Garofalo

Photo by T.J. Donahue

Westbound Rio Grande freight approaches Tunnel 1 near Coal Creek Canyon, CO - 2/1974

Forty-eight years ago this month (original article - February 2022), Tom (T.J.) Donahue took a two-week break from his duties as operator at Penn Central’s Peck Tower in Bridgeport, CT to railfan in California.  He traveled west by train.  The trip was not made entirely on Amtrak.  Tom stepped off in Denver, CO so he could ride the Rio Grande, which operated its own train, the Rio Grande Zephyr, Denver and Salt Lake City, UT.  Rio Grande’s domeliner ran three days a week and Tom arrived in Denver on a day when there was no westbound train.

With a day to railfan around Denver, Tom planned to photograph trains from on top of Rio Grande’s Tunnel #1.  He had no trouble climbing, after all, he once scaled the massive coaling tower at New Haven Railroad’s Cedar Hill Yard and took a shot from the top of the roundhouse below.  Tom often said he had “Million Dollar Legs.”  

As Tom hiked along the railroad, he heard the sound of a Rio Grande freight train approaching behind him.  Realizing his Million Dollar Legs couldn’t get him to the top of Tunnel #1 in time, Tom turned, stood his ground and squeezed off one photo.  He eventually made it to the top of the tunnel, but there were no other trains.

Tom’s photo above was used in one of Don Ball’s railroad books.  It graced a full page.  Ball wrote of Tom’s photo, “may very well be the most perfect photograph in the whole book.”  Not bad for a grab shot!