Nostalgia & History > 'Rolling' Rock in Eastern CO, 3 more by BB

1. RI 191/358/4706/198 w/Tr 59 wb @ Strasburg, CO Jan.5, 1975

2. RI 208/4791/4794/191 w/Tr 73 2.5 mi east of Strasburg, CO Mar.16, 1975

3. RI 228/4306/194/4318 w/Tr 58 1.6 mi west of Watkins, CO Nov.19, 1977 (despite recent TV pictures of the Buffalo area snowstorm, that's not a 'lake affect snow band' in the background!!!)

All by Bruce Black (BB)

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Great photos of my old employer. Thanks for posting them.

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY

Wow! Great stuff!

Lee Hower - Sacramento

Posted from Android



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/21/14 06:06 by mcfflyer.

Hello,

Thanks for posting the RI shots & good information along with the shots. Looks like the train in the first shot (59) picked up a string of empty coal hoppers somewhere along the way. If they're UP cars, they'll return to the UP at Denver to go back up to Hanna, WY where the Hallam, Nebr. trains were loaded.

The last shot shows a bunch of DRGW hoppers on the headend with Colorado coal for points further east. Trains handling trainload quantities of coal carried the "U" symbol (such as "58U") but it looks like there were other types of cars further back in the train in this case, so it most likely wasn't a "U" on that particular day.

I'd love to see more like this if you have them.

Take care,

Mark


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> 1. RI 191/358/4706/198 w/Tr 59 wb @ Strasburg, CO
> Jan.5, 1975
>
> 2. RI 208/4791/4794/191 w/Tr 73 2.5 mi east of
> Strasburg, CO Mar.16, 1975
>
> 3. RI 228/4306/194/4318 w/Tr 58 1.6 mi west of
> Watkins, CO Nov.19, 1977 (despite recent TV
> pictures of the Buffalo area snowstorm, that's not
> a 'lake affect snow band' in the background!!!)
>
> All by Bruce Black (BB)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/21/14 06:16 by mamfahr.

Awesome bunch, love seeing what once was along the KYLE.
JB

Great group, wonderful light. Thanks

Bob Jordan

Wind clouds over the Rockies

rio gran de coal in the last shot

Quality shots and locations. Thanks for letting us see them.
Brian Stevens

There was always something forlorn about the Rock on the plains OF Eastern Colorado -- so much space, so few towns, the railroad so far from its home. Nice pictures.

Beautiful shots.

Nice! Your shots certainly are better than the beer!

-E.O.

It's so weird to see the Rock Island really did have real-lookin', full sized trains after all of the "anything goes" scenes I got used to during the final decline & death. My Grandfather would have been proud...

Lance

Three just screamer shots Vince! Before seeing these photos, I did not know the RI SD40-2's ever made it out west.

Really like the super elevation on those curves!

Tom

What a Fantastic trio of shots! The KP line East out of Denver is very hilly and a bit of a challenge to run, I can't imagine having to do without dynamic brakes!
I see that none of the EMD's pictured have this feature. Were the Rock's GE's equipped with dynamics? If so, is that why they are seen on the point in these 3 views?

santafe199 Wrote:
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> It's so weird to see the Rock Island really did
> have real-lookin', full-sized trains after all of
> the "anything goes" scenes I got used to during
> the final decline & death. My Grandfather would
> have been proud...
>
> Lance

RI did a fair amount of business to/from Denver, with a friendly connection westwards via the D&RGW.

Seems I've read "somewhere" that the UP assured RI management that if they'd forgo their route to Denver, that UP would then give a 'mountain' of business to the Rock Island at the Missouri River.

That powder/baby blue thing, though......'uff-da'

Pat from Littleton, CO.

For those wondering what mamfahr is referring to with reference to the "U" symbol - It was a notation on the clearance card (lower right corner) that indicated what type of train it was for internal reporting purposes. When used, the "U" stood for Unit train. "A" was for a regularly scheduled train, and "X" for an extra section of a train (an actual extra train, not one designated as an extra by train order due to being late on schedule or for other reasons). I'm sure there were other letters used, but these are the only ones I can think of at the moment. In example 1 we see Extra 1324 East cleared at Biddle (Little Rock, Ark) which is an extra section of train #30 of July 3 (30X03). In example 2 we see #30 out of Biddle on Oct 30, 1975 which is actually train #38 of Oct 28th running on #30's schedule (38A28). In a third example we have Extra 359 West out of Kentucky St (Memphis) which is actually #39 (39A12). In this case (without digging out a timetable to refresh my memory) I believe #39 was run as Extra 359 West this date because it left Memphis before 39's schedule came alive in the timetable.


mamfahr Wrote:
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> The last shot shows a bunch of DRGW hoppers on the
> headend with Colorado coal for points further
> east. Trains handling trainload quantities of
> coal carried the "U" symbol (such as "58U") but it
> looks like there were other types of cars further
> back in the train in this case, so it most likely
> wasn't a "U" on that particular day.
>
> I'd love to see more like this if you have them.
>
> Take care,
>
> Mark
>

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No dynamic brake on the RI's GE units.



SP8595 Wrote:
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> What a Fantastic trio of shots! The KP line East
> out of Denver is very hilly and a bit of a
> challenge to run, I can't imagine having to do
> without dynamic brakes!
> I see that none of the EMD's pictured have this
> feature. Were the Rock's GE's equipped with
> dynamics? If so, is that why they are seen on the
> point in these 3 views?

While looking for examples of the alpha symbols used on RI clearance cards, I came across a train order that features the third unit in Vince's first photo - GP40 # 4706. Here we see it on the far eastern side of the railroad, headed to Memphis on Dec 15, 1971.

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