Nostalgia & History > Action at Limon Jct. - 1983

Limon, CO, a lonely outpost in eastern Colorado; 550.5 miles west of Kansas City and 89.5 miles east of Denver on the UP's KP line. The Rock Island also had a presence here. In passenger days, the Rocky Mountain Rocket would split here, one secion going to Colorado Springs on its own line, the other section reaching Denver via trackage rights on the KP. The Rock entered the KP at Limon Jct. one tenth of a mile west of the diamond.
On August 7, 1983, I was returning from Denver as a passenger on No. 118 after the "Denver Ruff Out". The UP would put a couple of coaches and a bar car on the head end of daily freights Nos. 117-118 for employees going to this annual event. In 1983, with the Rock three years gone, the line was being operated by the Cadillac & Lake City RR. It so happened that this day No. 118 had a 20 car set out on the head end for the C&LC at Limon.
1) The power and coaches are cut off and pull ahead to clear the Limon Jct. switch.
2-3) With Road Foreman B.L. Troutman watching, the C&LC, using leased UP GP30 #849, couples onto the cut and pulls it onto home rails.
Now operated by the Kyle RR, Limon is the western end of the old Rock Island and remains an interchange point with the UP.

Thanks for looking.

Bob Helling
PRose

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Bob, I found this series interesting, thanks for posting. - Jim Burrill

Bob,was that right behind me where I shot this? Down by the Windmill collection?

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