Western Railroad Discussion > TN Pass, CO

Stored full ballast cars today.

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Going to open the pass up? 😀

Posted from iPhone

It would be great if activity returned to TP, but

I'm guessing these are loaded Rock and Rail cars for departure.

Do you know the location by chance?

see the mounds in background, parkdale i would think


https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,2833554,2834674#msg-2834674

CPRR Wrote:
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> Going to open the pass up? 😀
>
> Posted from iPhone


These are cars from the quarry at Parkdale Colo that are on the Rock & Rail here. Most are destined for the plant at Drennan in Colorado Springs. R&R interchanges these cars to UP at Pueblo Co. They then run NB on the ex DRGW along I25 as it traverses north. I guess they store them here after loading and take the loaded cars north rather than wait for the inbound at the quarry to get loaded. Makes sense. When I worked at Rock & Rail years ago, we ran the loop at the quarry and the cars were loaded by front end loader, which took some time. Usually, it took 3-4 hrs to load 45-50 cars with rock. Some Difco Side Dump Cars were part of the train and were always on the rear when we left Parkdale. Usually they had rather large boulders in them, used for Rip-Rap. Last I knew, set up was the same.

At Drennan in Colo Sprngs, loaded rock cars went in first at abt 4 cars per shove. The Difco's were usually the last ones thru the unloader. Just a big "Shaker" with an open pit under and between the tracks at Drennan. We also interchanged with BN/BNSF back then. UP Power is used now a days, as the Rock and Rail power is used for the "local" which serves the Holcim Cement Plant at Portland. Ben

Those hopper cars belong to Martin Marietta Aggregate Co.