Nostalgia & History > Portrait of the Joint Line

A photo I left out of my day-by-day description of my Memorial Day Trip to Denver in 1983, is this one taken during our outing to the Joint line on May 28, 1983. The northbound train is BN 5111 North which had just passed through a derailment site at Palmer Lake.

 The trains in the foreground are waiting for their turn to get past the wreck site at Palmer Lake. As can be seen here, traffic was really backed up. Good for us, not so much for the the railroaders involved.

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The train on Spruce siding must be a work train.  Possibly ballast for the derailment site.  That must be when the coal load sideswiped an stopped rio Grande train.  There was even a small pileup at the rear of the coal train when the helpers hadn't gotten shut downf when the train stopped.  It was quite the mess!

RR

Yes, you are correct in regards to the incident.