Western Railroad Discussion > The Joint Line - My First Shots

So I've lived in Colorado my whole life (it'll be 22 years next month) and I've only been to the Joint Line once, and that was maybe twelve years ago. And the fact I like an hour and a half or so away, I have shot anything from this line. Amazing isn't it? Anyways, it was overall a good day with several trains and a nice break from just railfanning north and west of Denver. :]

====================================================================================================================

1) Just south of Castle Rock near the location of Tomah, a loaded coal train works up the grade.

2) At Palmer Lake, the first of four southbounds climbs towards the Palmer Divide with another load of low sulfur Wyoming coal.

3) After meeting the coal load at Monument, a relatively new SD70ACe leads this coal empty passed the well... it was once a lake but looks like it may return in the future.

Some more...

John Crisanti
Longmont, CO

---

---

---

4) A Canadian Pacific "Dual-Flag" AC4400CW brings up the rear of the same coal empty as they pass over the switch and enter Main 2.

5) Three BNSF GEs lead a southbound manifest at Palmer Lake.

6) Following right behind the first manifest, this southbound manifest climbs out of the sag at Spruce just north of Palmer Lake.

Some more...

John Crisanti
Longmont, CO

---

---

---

7) A coal load and the last of the four southbounds starts up out of Spruce after receiving a clear signal at Palmer Lake to top the divide and enter the single track.

8) Three BNSF C44-9Ws and a SD70MAC lead the Laurel, MT to Pueblo, CO manifest at Larkspur while passing over the famous bridge that displays a name of the past.

9) The same manifest continues to climb the grade at Greenland.

One more...

John Crisanti
Longmont, CO

---

---

---

10) As the sun continues to lower in the west, the Laurel - Pueblo manifest enters the sag at Spruce and continues up the grade to Palmer Lake. And with this, I ended my day and headed home.

Thanks for looking!

John Crisanti
Longmont, CO

---

Great photos. Thanks for sharing.

Nice series, John. Congrats on finally making it down to the Joint Line! :)

Kevin Morgan
Arvada, CO
ColoradoRailfan.com

Great series, John. Shots 7, 8, and, 10 are outstanding.

~Ryan

I especially like # 7 & 8. Pic 7 shows the entire train. One hardly ever sees that on a long train. There all great!

Mark Cole
Temple, Tx

Excellent day out!!

You certainly add the professional's touch, beautiful framing of your shots.

Awesome series, can't say I've ever seen that shot in #2 & 4 done before. Sweet!

Excellent bunch, welcome to the neighborhood. Love number ten.
JB

Very nice series of shots, John!

James Nelson
Thornton, CO
www.flickr.com/mojaveflyer

What a nice series. This could provide inspiration for a future railfan video production featuring the Joint Line.

I agree with JB, I really like # 10. Frank

Very nice shots, thanks for posting.

Bob Wilcox
Charlottesville, VA
My Flickr Shots

Really great series of photos.

Ronda Thomas

Thanks everyone for the comments! Greatly appreciated :] I'm definitely gonna make it down there a lot more often now. Plenty of opportunities.

John Crisanti
Longmont, CO

Good to see you made it down to the neighborhood:} Nice shots John, I especially like #10 and the CP shot.

Very nice views John. Great job for your first time. My first time was in 1974 and the photos were, well, uh... === === = === JLH