Nostalgia & History > Monday Meets: Meet me in Julesburg

Here’s a UP meet at the iconic signal bridge in Julesburg, CO. Jim Watson was making a pass through the area on the old highway (US 385 in those days?) in July of 1980. After a peek at Google Maps & a little phone conference Jim & I are pretty sure this was a shot of opportunity taken from the north side of the mainline about mid afternoon. In typical railfan-on-the-move tradition we think he came upon this scene with a stopped (westbound) train and saw (or knew) that the eastbound train was near. All he had to do was pull off the highway and walk over a few yards to “grab” this shot, complete with a roll-by inspection. Just in time for Monday Meets a scant 34 years later...

1. UP 8057 is eastbound with a van train getting a ‘roll-by’ inspection from a westbound crew on July 15, 1980.
(Photo by James W. Watson)

Thanks for looking back!
Lance Garrels (santafe199)
Jim Watson (UP6900)



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 07/14/22 00:36 by santafe199.

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Sweet.

We Will Deliver.

DAF

Awesome! Shot was taken from the south side of the tracks out east of Julesburg where the siding on the north side ends and the old Denver mainline merges into the Overland Route.

Very nice, Jim and Lance. Thank you! This is the UP I grew up with and still love. I often see mention of the UP's greater variety of a few years earlier, but to me, there's no prettier face on the point of a train than a UP SD40-2. Wonderful photo!

Joe Atkinson
Council Bluffs, IA
www.iaisrailfans.org/../Sub4WestEnd

nwkrailfan Wrote:
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> Awesome! Shot was taken from the south side of the
> tracks out east of Julesburg where the siding on
> the north side ends and the old Denver mainline
> merges into the Overland Route.

Thanks for posting that shot. I agree with the comments above, that this was taken at the east end of Julesburg, looking directly north. It appears you can just see the highway pavement (along north side of the tracks) under the plow of the 8057.

If you go back far enough (not knowing how "old" you want to get, 1940s/'50s, for example...), the Denver trains joined/diverged from the Overland Route at an interlocking just west of the depot, rather than at this location. That interlocking was controlled by the operator in the depot and was one of the first of its kind installed along the E-W mainline (along with Grand Island, Gibbon, No. Platte, East end Green River & Granger) with those "CTC"-style interlockings replacing switchtenders at many of those locations.

Take care,

Mark

mamfahr Wrote:
> I agree ... this was taken at the east end of Julesburg, looking directly north....

My original instinct was to place Jim on the south side of the mainline downtown, but I had a little trouble with the barren scenery behind the shot. This, and the direction the signal hoods are facing led me to wonder if Jim wasn't on the north side (downtown). But you (& "nwkrailfan") have a compelling argument that this is actually the signal bridge just over the Nebraska state line with the 2 trains' directions reversed. I traveled with Jim many times on his business trips in the late 70's & early 80's, and I know that a lot of his "out in the sticks" photography like this shot at Julesburg came from quick opportunities, such as "jumping out of the car when a headlight appears". It's not unreasonable to suppose that Jim WAS driving on the north side here, but simply walked across the mainline to the south side for this.

This is another great example why a subscription to TO is worth every penny!! Several railfans together, solving ONE puzzle! Jim's at work as I type these words (1345 CDT), but he should get a chance to take a look at this thread and hopefully add some thoughts...

Lance

SD40-2s Everywhere. The UP way and it was great.
Brian Stevens

I've only been in Julesburg once, I missed the iconic SD40-2's and was scratching my head over the scenery. I had to look up the scene on Google, I'm guessing it's at Google coordinates:

41.00348,-102.230168

copy and paste into Google, select the satellite view and it should show the signal bridge. not sure if it's the same in the newer versions of Google.

Anyway's, it's at least the second bridge out of town, agree that the sun is still on the south side, but also noted the off center positioning of the signals on the signal bridge. Either way, it's a great photo for that UP era.

Interesting to look around at the trackwork, shows how they cut down from 4 tracks to two with a crossover thrown in for good measure.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/21/14 19:28 by TCnR.

santafe199 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> mamfahr Wrote:
> > I agree ... this was taken at the east end of
> Julesburg, looking directly north....

Yup, 8057 and those pigs are WB towards Julesburg, which is located on the north side of the UP's right-of-way.

> ...compelling argument that this is actually the
> signal bridge just over the Nebraska state line
> with the 2 trains' directions reversed.

> ...It's not unreasonable to suppose that
> Jim WAS driving on the north side here, but simply
> walked across the mainline to the south side for
> this.

Positiion yourself "just so" -- and you could be standing in either Nebraska or Colorado, and right on top of the tracks!

> This is another great example why a subscription
> to TO is worth every penny!! Several railfans
> together, solving ONE puzzle!
>
> Lance

Big 'Amen' to that, Lance!
Thanks to both you and Jim for the photo.

Pat from Littleton, CO.