Steam & Excursion > 1994 Frontier Days train

With the Cheyenne Frontier Days train run nearing, here is a flashback to its appearance in 1994.

Photo 1 - Returning to Denver on July 16, 1994, after the passengers spent the day at the rodeo at Frontier Park, here the afternoon departure is weaving from Main 1 across to Main 4 at C.P. 511/Tower A/West Cheyenne/C&S Bridge, with no diesel helper, Rio Grande Ski Train cars outnumber the UP cars, and Challenger 3985 does the pulling. A Signal Maintainer friend of mine owed me a favor from long ago when we were in a UP signal gang together, and after I bugged him for a couple of years, he arranged to allow me to climb the signal bridge (that my Dad helped to assemble in 1973) so I could get the elevated view of the Frontier Days train snaking through the switches, a view I have seen no one else get. Now I don't know anybody to bug, most are retired, and I could not do this shot in digital now, without a drone.

Photo 2 - The next day's return trip from Denver back to Cheyenne rumbles over the Cache La Poudre River trestle departing Greeley, CO, minus the Rio Grande Ski Train cars, but with two SD40-2's added and other cars shuffled in. Both these shots show a scarce commodity - smoke - which is hard to get now with 844. Will we see a Big Boy do these honors in the near future? === === = === JLH



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/19/17 09:33 by highgreengraphics.

---

---

Thank you JLH for posting those two classic images ...
nicely done!

There do be a lot of history to the CFD train ... it truly is a tradition.

Odyssey
Evergreen, CO

UP 3985 on the trestle is my favorite image. The water barrel on the trestle adds historical interest.
Bob

Why are there powered up split derails in the middle of the control point.

SantaFe Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Why are there powered up split derails in the
> middle of the control point.

As I recall, that is pretty a steep down-grade, i.e. descending off Sherman Hill, and I'm sure the UP doesn't want any "run-a-ways" progressing down into the Cheyenne Terminal.

great pic, the train CFD just had restarted in 91 with amtrak power and the ski train cars, then 6936 got involved, then steam, then UP cars only after the ski train ran in the summers, except for the ski train PV's, then all UP.





wow you would think they would put those derails further away from the C&S!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/19/17 10:18 by dan.

Wow! That second shot is fantastic. Thanks for sharing it! Miss that engine.

Chris Bost
Leesport, PA