Western Railroad Discussion > Colorado Joint Line Information request

I will be in Colorado Springs for several days later this week and want to spend 1 day on the Joint Line. I've been there before but am hoping for current information:

1. One or two really good spots within 20-30 miles of Colorado Springs (north or south), without needing a huge zoom lens.

2. I heard recently that traffic can be lumpy: dead periods and then clusters of trains. Is that true? Are any days better than others.

3. Could someone share up to date radio frequencies?

Thanks in advance for any help.

superchief1944 Wrote:
.
>
> 3. Could someone share up to date radio
> frequencies?

161.100 (Channel 66) 20th Street to Englewood
160.650 (Channel 36) Englewood to Pueblo Jct. (BNSF Dispatcher)
160.920 (Channel 54) Englewood to Bragdon (UP Dispatcher)
161.490 (Channel 92) Bragdon to Pueblo Jct. (UP Dispatcher)
160.560 (Channel 30) BNSF Switching Channel

UP Dispatches Track one from Littleton to Palmer Lake and Crews to Bragdon
UP Dispatcher Track two from Bragdon to Pueblo Jct.
BNSF handles everything else.

Hope this helps.

TopCat

Just a small note on the above radio info, both 160.650 and 160.920 are used for much of the joint line, so you want to monitor both when on the line from Englewood to Bragdon/Pueblo.

As to 1 location, I would recommend the area at or near Palmer Lake, various angles and shots abound, good curve that allows you to move position for lighting, trains frequently wait north of Palmer LAke about 1 mile to head southbound.

Hard to predict the times of ebbs and flows, varies.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/21/14 16:17 by skyview.

I believe there was talk recently of some tie replacement South of Palmer Lake to Colorado Springs. Could affect traffic big time. You might want to do a search here on TO.

I'll second the Palmer Lake spot. I 25 North of Colorado Springs can get congested at rush hours, so beware of traffice delays.

Rob

Joint Liine maintenance of way work was evident in several locations on Joint Line October 21, 2014. Switch replacement Was underway at Oxford & Santa Fe around Englewood, CO. More work at Castle Rock. Another gang was at Colorado Springs Siding. These maintenance work windows should be finished later in October - date unknown.

As just stated, there is plenty of MoW going on right now on the Joint Line. These MoW windows usually last from around around 8am to 3 or 4 pm. So, while there won't be any trains during that period (if MoW is out that day), once that window expires, there is a flood of southbounds getting out of Denver. It was that way yesterday and it was the same today. Assuming there is no MoW however, weekends seem to be much busier traffic-level wise than weekdays, with most trains running in the morning and in the afternoon.

they were still working on main 1 around 5:30 -6

Northbounds could still be running if the work is just main #1 (the further west track, generally southbound).
Also, could get lucky with a southbound move on main #2 (further track east, generally northbound).

Of course, this is based that only 1 track out of service for m of w

skyview Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Northbounds could still be running if the work is
> just main #1 (the further west track, generally
> southbound).
> Also, could get lucky with a southbound move on
> main #2 (further track east, generally
> northbound).
>
> Of course, this is based that only 1 track out of
> service for m of w

But this would require the MoW forces to be north of the road crossing and henceforth north of the switch so they could use Main 2. Last time I was by there, about 2 weeks ago, they had a Red Flag, south of the Lake. Ben

Well, yes if they are working on the single track south of Palmer Lake, then everything would be stopped.

Thanks to all of you who helped with information. If you have any news on Friday or Saturday I'd love to have it.

As of today, Thursday, 2 southbounds stopped at Castle Rock, 1 an empty coal train the other I believe an empty Boeing Fuselage train (not 100% on that), waiting for track to open.