Nostalgia & History > Abandoned U.P.R.R grade near Lookout, Wyoming pictures

Hi! These are some pictures I took while hiking along the Union Pacific transcontinental railroad grade near Lookout, Wyoming a few years ago. Lookout is basically between Laramie and Medicine Bow. This was on private property and I had to first ask the landowner for his permission to access the former ROW. He graciously allowed me on the property. I then spent most of a day wandering around the Laramie Plains of Wyoming on a railroad abandoned well over 100 years ago. 
Hope everybody likes the pics!

1) Looking down the grade.
2) Beat up 1880's era Brookfield beehive insulator from the telegraph line. 
3) Mostly buried fishplate.

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4) Union Pacific railroad bucket that has seen better days.
5) A small lake under a beautiful blue sky. 
6) Oregon Railway and Navigation Company marked relic. 

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Pics 7, 8, and 9 are of an abandoned bridge abutment crossing a small cut. 

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10 and 11 are some buddies of mine hanging around the ROW, also. Seriously, these jackrabbits can scare the heck out of you when you are walking along and one explodes out of the underbrush near your feet!
Pic 12 is of an abandoned well a bit off of the ROW. 

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The next three pictures are of a place known as cannonball cut. The locals call it this because of a preponderance of almost perfectly round stones that are found here. 
Picture 13 is looking westbound at the cut while picture 14 shows some of the round "cannonball" like rocks in the cut itself.
Picture 15 is probably my favorite of the day.  It was taken while standing on top of the cut and looking westbound at the former ROW disappearing into the vast Wyoming wilderness.  

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Just a few more!
A Chicago and Northwestern marked relic lies forgotten in this vast land.
Another one of my favorite pictures of the day was this fence bordering the former ROW.
Finally after a long day I am almost back to where I started at along Route 30. A train can be seen passing by in the distance on the current U.P.R.R. main. I'm glad to be back at my car and will shortly be rolling into the Qdoba at Laramie! 

Take care,

Matt
 

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Very nice set of pictures! Sure is neat to see so much evidence of the old line still there. When was that built and when did UP abandon it? 

Another nice series.
And those Wyoming jackrabbits do scare the heck out of you. They're huge and stealthy. 
 

I believe the line was built through here in 1868 and was abandoned in the very early 1900's. It's quite a historic area to explore!!

Thank you for posting these nice pictures of industrial archaeology!
GK

So would the C&NW marked equipment be from a CNW car of the era that met it's demise there on the line in some form of accident?   Any other theories on how CNW equipment would be found out there?   

Milwaukee Wrote:
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> So would the C&NW marked equipment be from a CNW
> car of the era that met it's demise there on the
> line in some form of accident?   Any other
> theories on how CNW equipment would be found out
> there?   

The CNW at one time had a line to Lander, WY

Posted from iPhone

Lonely!!!!

Thanks for sharing your photos!

Well, you probably scared the crap out of the jackrabbit first. upkpfan

To say "fantastic" about this set would be an understatement.  Such railroad archaeology 
is extremely interesting.  Thanks for the great photos and interesting info.

The C&NW Lander line went through northern Nebraska and was north of the UP mainline. It would not be unusual to find loads from industrial Chicago in C&NW cars headed for Wyoming, Utah or California on the UP.

Railroads have been actively interchanging freight cars nearly since the beginning once they decided it made more sense to pass the entire loaded car to another railroad rather than unloading the home road car then draying the freight to load it into the receiving road car.

This interchange didn't happen in the south until the civil war account multiple gauges and lack of connection across cities.






Spoony81 Wrote:
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> Milwaukee Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > So would the C&NW marked equipment be from a
> CNW
> > car of the era that met it's demise there on
> the
> > line in some form of accident?   Any other
> > theories on how CNW equipment would be found
> out
> > there?   
>
> The CNW at one time had a line to Lander, WY
>
> Posted from iPhone

Thank you for sharing the images and commentary!
A really nice series ... well done!

Odyssey
Evergreen, CO

Thanks for all of the positive comments, everybody! Glad you liked the pictures. 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/12/19 07:39 by mkancle.

> ... When was that built and when did UP abandon it?

Hello,

That segment of line was originally constructed in 1868.  The new line via Rock River opened on May 27, 1900, allowing the original line to be abandoned.

Take care,

Mark