Nostalgia & History > Old roadbed on the US Air Force Academy grounds

Over the years that I have lived here in Colo I have noticed what appears to be an abandoned ROW along I25 in the northern parts of the Academy grounds. There is even what apperas to be some old concrete Signal Pedastels visible, if one knows where to look. Was this part of the ATSF or DRGW, if indeed it was a Roadbed. It is quite obvious when one heads south out of Monument on the I. Someone from back east asked me about it awhile back, and I didn't have an answer for him. Can someone perhaps provide some info on this? TIA Ben

x atsf line abandoned at city of colo sprgs behest, something like 50 crossings, right before the coal boom. check out the atsf station if you get a chance. It is an office, but what a nice building. Think C sprgs even enacted a whistle ban they disliked the city being split by the trains, the ATSF line ran just east of downtown.

bike path occupies a lot of the grade in the monument area, studies to put in a 2nd main, have made use of this alignment, as well as double tracking the DRGW.

Now with coal plants being frowned upon, doubtful about me seeing the a 2nd line added, the railroads make it work, but there is probably no way they will allow scheduled passenger trains on the line, as long as this bottleneck persists. The government was talking about the coal bypass out east, but this seems remote now. 2011 summer with twice the amount of coal traffic showed that it is still a capable line with the single track segment.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/08/12 18:16 by dan.

And the railroads wish they had it back!

Entire exSanta Fe right of way between Palmer Lake and South Colorado Springs abandoned early seventies. Never ceases to amaze me how straight the Santa Fe was and how curvy the exDRGW that they kept is? I know they had to abandon the Santa Fe because of all the crossings but seems they "might" have done a little connecting back and forth to save on the mega maintainance this stretch requires. I would guess the exDRGW has three or four times more curvature than the ex Santa Fe which should have made up for a connection here and there?
JB

there was a sometimes sizeable difference in elevation that doesn't disappear until north side of Palmer lake