Western Railroad Discussion > Colorado this n' that

First, thanks to all who responded to my advice for Denver railfan tips; it was very helpful. I had to go to Denver for two weeks for work (and boy, did I work!), but I had only one day off, so it didn't leave a whole lot of time to explore, but I did get out on Saturday, June 3rd, to see the sights. I "accidentally" found the Denver RTD station at 38th St. & Blake where I found some UP power sitting around, and also caught an eastbound RTD train at the station.

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I just had to go up to the Blue Mountain Road crossing west of Denver just to see the place if I didn't see a train. On passing under the old Rio Grande bridge on Hwy 72, I saw the westbound California Zephyr pass overhead. Well I thought he would be long gone, but I continued on anyway. As soon as I got near the grade crossing, I heard him whistle for the crossing and was able to take this picture from the road.

Next I headed up to see Lookout Mountain Park, which had some great views, and then in the afternoon I headed for the Joint Line, making it as far as Palmer Lake. They were having some kind of event by the tracks so I decided to head north to about MP 50 where I caught a southbound manifest running on a yellow, which stopped at Palmer Lake waiting on MOW to finish their work. Last unit on the 6510 south was an old SD40-2.

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The MOW folks finished up around 4:30 PM but the dispatcher held the southbound for 3 northbounds around Colorado Springs to "get over the top". I wanted to shoot them here at MP 50 but being blocked by the cars of the 6510 south, I headed up to Larkspur to catch them and hopefully get some sun. The clouds had moved in by this time and sunshine was getting scarce. The first northbound through was 7178 with the short Q train (top). The 2nd and 3rd northbounds were empty coal trains, the last one (middle) led by 6436 as the sun just peeks out.

Heading back to Denver, I spotted an actual loaded coal train led by UP 6855 (bottom) crawling through Castle Rock at a snails pace. I was able to get off the I-25 and beat him up the frontage road to the next grade crossing.

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The 7173 and 6624 are the DPU's pushing hard on the coal train (top). I believe it had been at least 25 years since I had seen an actual loaded coal train.

Wednesday the 7th I tried to get out a little early and see what photos I could get before work. My job site was pretty near UP's North Yard so I parked and walked over the 48th St. bridge and was able to catch BNSF 1791 and 1966 shove empty COFC cars into the yard (middle).

Last photo is of the UP power and fuel facilities.

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Last photo on Friday the 9th on the way to the airport to go home, BNSF 7926 heads a unit grain train into the yard on Brighton Ave. That's all folks, and thanks for looking.

Tom

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Wow, you sure got around Colorado during your two week visit. Come visit us again in the Mile High City!

Thanks so much for the great series of photos.
And thanks for the good look at the Denver RTD.
So that's what they look like! High-level
boarding and all. And your 4th photo is a real
stunner! I love the green hills and the buildings
and very well composed. Well done!

Great shots!

The Denver RTd looks like a SEPTA train that got way lost between 30th Street and West Trentom!
gonut