Two trains appear simultaneously in this sweeping panorama — one crawling along the lower switchback amid a forest of wind-stunted pines, a second already near the crest of the Continental Divide where a long snow shed guards the tracks against Rocky Mountain blizzards — together they illustrate the extraordinary vertical drama of the Moffat Road's assault on the highest standard-gauge crossing in North America. The hand-colored image, numbered 8680, pulls the viewer back far enough to show the treeline giving way to barren tundra-like slopes, and the smoke from both locomotives traces ghostly arcs against a pale sky. The Moffat Road crested the Divide at Rollins Pass, elevation 11,660 feet, and the snow sheds visible at the summit were a constant reminder of the brutal winters that would eventually doom this route before the Moffat Tunnel finally opened in 1928. A spectacular piece of Colorado railroad history.