Nostalgia & History > Sundown at Sandown (Denver)

One would have to assume that Bruce Black was wrapping 'making the rounds' in Denver when he captured this summer evening scene on Aug. 6, 1976. This is the UP's Sandown Jct., with the sun dropped below the Divide and scattered lights dotting the landscape.

Sandown Junction was located in east Denver and was where the Rock Island left it's trackage rights (from Limon, CO to Denver) to head northwest to Belt Junction where it connected with the Rio Grande (at Belt Junction) and then ended up in D&RGW's North Yard.

The second shot is one I took on Dec. 17, 1974 ....



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/21/14 20:13 by valmont.

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When did they take down those buildings out of curiosity? I remember a building at the TOFC ramp, but to at the yard.

after the rock went away around 1982

Prior to " The Rock " going away, this yard was a good bet to find Rock Island Power when paying visits to Denver, usually a old GE Road Unit

Odd looking signal.

I practically lived at Sandown Junction as a kid. It was within bicycle distance of my home and the operator was tolerant of an inquisitive youngster. There was always something interesting coming off the KP -- 2-8-2s on locals, 4-8-4s on the Portland Rose and one glorious evening a 2-10-2 and a 4-8-4 on the nightly mixed to McPherson. That train later got PAs. Rock was all-diesel by the time I got to it, but I saw a BL2 once or twice on troop trains. An old-fashioned pot-bellied stove squatted in the corner, nice to have on cold winter nights and the operator handed up orders still using the old hoops, which I was sent to retrieve from the weeds. learned railroading in that little shack.

Wasn't there some talk a few years ago about UP putting the track back in between Sandown Jct and where the track currently ends west of Quebec Street? It would require buying and demolishing the Courtyard Denver Stapleton Hotel that was built on the abandoned right-of-way.

But, hey, Union Pacific has deep pockets and has trains to run! To make an omelet, you have to break a few eggs!

It would probably be a mileage saver and make operations more fluid.

Have they since given up on that idea?

Your sunset image is calendar quality. Thanks for sharing it.

They shelved it. Some sort of drainage issue made them decide not to do it.

How far away is/was Sandown from Roydale?

Martin
AH,CA

The first photo is worthy of Image of the Day.

valmont Wrote:
>
> Sandown Junction was located in east Denver and
> was where the Rock Island left it's trackage
> rights (from Limon, CO to Denver) to head
> northwest to Belt Junction where it connected with
> the Rio Grande (at Belt Junction) and then ended
> up in D&RGW's North Yard.
>
> The second shot is one I took on Dec. 17, 1974
> ....

Just about melted when I saw this photo, Valmont. Growing-up in east Denver, we passed over the Rock Island's small yard there at Duban (what the RI called it's yard) many, many times before we moved in 1966. We lived about about 3 miles due south, and at night with the windows open in a north-facing bedroom, I could often hear the Rock Island's air-horns on their trains. They were pretty distinctive and easily distinguishable from the UP's, even to a 12-year-old's ears. There was always a Rock Island Geep working the yard, and the Rock was good for roughly a half-dozen scheduled freights per day. Caught (saw) the eastbound Rocky Mountain Rocket near here a few times through the early-to-mid-1960's.

(Signal indication and switch-points indicate a westbound movement onto the Rock Island. Always wondered why the target on the lower signal head was cut-back in that fashion; it was that way for many years. Always assumed that it was a clearance issue, or something similar. I assume that the control of the signals, etc., was 'localized' to the Sandown Jct. operator/agent? The UP had ABS on their tracks in either direction. Anybody out there know who actually controlled the junction?)

Anyway, THANKS for the memories, Bruce Barrett and Valmont!
Pat from Littleton, CO.

be cool to see the rocket, rode the UP to KC.

I think the Rock alignment problems were solvable, RI would have a few problems with flooding where Ivy would cross the RI, they would call the section truck out of Limon or Goodland, and detour into union station runaround and go to North yard that way. I saw.

That area has a lot of Hasmat, and if you alter the drainage you alter toxic plumes. RTD just went a little less expensive, with the KP. They also were looking at moving UP's yards but, hazmat, and train yards are some big cash. In a few years after the marriot, BUILT IN dUBAN, depriciates a little more it may be more feasible, see if there is any colo coal left to go east.

tHE NEW LEADS THEY BUILT ANGLE NICELY, opps, along the alignment it appears. for possible reconnection. Do you guys remeber the old RI outside braced caboosess that were stored there, I didn't get up there much till the mid late seventies in my teens. Some of them ended up in backyards nearby.

> (Signal indication and switch-points indicate a
> westbound movement onto the Rock Island. Always
> wondered why the target on the lower signal head
> was cut-back in that fashion; it was that way for
> many years. Always assumed that it was a
> clearance issue, or something similar.


Hello Pat,

I think that's why it was cut back like that. I've seen several other places on UP where they'd done it just that way. In each case, they'd stuck a signal between tracks where there wasn't sufficient clearance. Rather than put up an expensive sig. bridge or change track centers to accommodate the signal, they just sliced off part of the signal head so it would fit outside of clearance envelopes.


> ...I assume that the control of the signals, etc., was
> 'localized' to the Sandown Jct. operator/agent?
> The UP had ABS on their tracks in either
> direction. Anybody out there know who actually
> controlled the junction?)

I'm fairly sure that switches at that junction were handled by the employee located there at the office/shanty. I see that his job was designated in 1976 as "telegrapher-switchtender" and it doesn't show "interlocking" in the timetable, meaning that switches/signals probably weren't remotely-controlled/interlocked like a CTC location would be. That indicates that switches were hand-throw, manipulated by the employee there, with signals being ABS only. I'll check on that with a retired dispatcher I know and report back if he can confirm anything.


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Later... received a reply from my friend, confirming the hand-throw (not CTC) switch idea. Here's what he said:

"Yes, the operator had to go out and physically line the switch. It was, of course, normally lined for UP, but if a RI movement was imminent it would have to be lined for the Belt Line. The timer was automatic, as I remember, when you unlocked the switch it could not be thrown for three minutes."




Take care,

Mark



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/09/14 08:21 by mamfahr.