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Approximately 265 miners were employed at the underground <br /> operations . At the peak of the activity a total of 200 bee- <br /> hive type coke ovens were active at Redstone . <br /> The entire project was a marvel of engineering and <br /> social consciousness in the Rocky :fountain wilderness . The <br /> railroad , which was standard gauge (5 feet , 32 inches) from <br /> Carbondale to Redstone , was narrow gauge (3 feet) up the <br /> steep , twisting , narrow canyon of Coal Creek (then called <br /> Mud Creek) to the Coal Basin townsite . The tracks climbed <br /> 2 , 242 feet in the 12 miles from Redstone to Coal Basin , with <br /> a maximum grade of 4 . 4 percent . It was all the little <br /> narrow-gauge engines could do to pull the maximum load of 13 <br /> empty cars and caboose up the tortuous route from the <br /> Redstone ovens to the mine . There was only one spot on the <br /> entire 12 mile line where the whole train was straight at <br /> one time. <br /> The mine was opened by a 1200 foot rock tunnel <br /> driven uphill to meet the top bench of the Coal Basin seam <br /> of coal , which dipped into the mountain from above the <br /> tunnel . Coal was mined by pick and shovel and loaded into <br /> small 1 ton cars by hand . It was then hauled by mules to a <br /> slope driven in the 7 foot coal seam to be hoisted to the <br /> surface by a steam powered hoist . After the coal was hauled <br /> to Redstone it was sorted by size , the larger lumps going to <br /> railroads for steam locomotive fuel , to smelters in the <br /> Aspen and Leadville areas , and to homes and local businesses <br /> 6 <br />