Like a CTC Board come to life: Westbound on Big Ten. . .
June 12: Finally, we'd reached Colorado. To be fair to Marc, we'd probably pursued more of my interests than his on this trip. At least for much of today, we'd be in his nirvana: along the Rio Grande west of Denver. First: Hobby Shops, including Caboose Hobbies and another place out in Englewood. By afternoon, we were perched atop a ridge just west of the famous Big Ten curve between Rocky and Plainview, watching a westbound claw its way up the Front Range. It was a location I'd seen in an old book my dad had on the Moffat Road, showing a series of photos of Rio Grande in the Perlman era: new CTC, new F-units and geeps making rolling meets, etc. Today, here came the 5315/3028 (SD45/GP30) on 57 cars, GP40's 3090/3106 shoving on the rear. After watching this show unfold like a life-sized CTC machine, we drove up to Plainview, above Tunnel One, to watch the action bagging a downhill coal load meeting an empty. We then slipped down to Rocky ahead of the load, and photographed it leaving the Big Ten curves (train #706, 5384/5364/5357/5342/5343 on 78 loads, 2 more T2 helpers ahead of 26 more cars).
Heavy coal train #706 at East Rocky. . .
For reasons lost to us now--probably because we were losing the sun in the mountains--we headed south of Littleton for a little Joint Line action, happening onto two southbound ATSF/C&S trains (these were jointly operated years before the BNSF merger). Both had interesting power: the first, with Santa Fe F45/SD45 and 2 BN SD40-2's; the second, with two Santa Fe C30-7's and a BN SD40-2. We also saw a northbound Rio Grande train with 8 SD45T-2's and a single GP35.
Nice! F45 leads the way at Sedalia. . .
Ending the day with glint at Orsa, with ATSF C30-7's. . .
We drove back to Plainview to sleep for the night in the back of the Corolla, a night unremarked except for being awakened before sunrise by a poor chap whose night of passion in his father's car with his girlfriend had been spoiled when the car battery died, requiring us to give him a jump.
June 13: The next morning, we were in place and ready for the action. First off, a westbound with a pair of SD40T-2's (5406/5408) on a short train at 0625. Screaming light, and we shot him again at the east switch at Rocky. A half hour later, here came westbound #87, looking sweet coming out of tunnel one with four GP40/35s (3122/3091/3056/3033) and 50 cars, including a cut of Coors beer on insulated BN boxcars, 0700.
First train of the AM, in great light at Rocky. . .
Beer up front, #87 leaves Tunnel One. . .
A half hour after that, another eastbound, with seven SD40T-2's on the head end with 66 cars, mostly coal. . .a Moffatt local, perhaps? He waited at Rocky for the train we'd been hoping to see, westbound #17, the Rio Grande Zephyr. Now fully "restored" to respectability since the last time we saw him, the train was rightfully equipped with A-B-B F9's on the head end, the dome obs on the rear, and 8 cars, five of them domes. Rather than do the easy thing and chase them west to Utah--something completely feasible--we then broke camp and headed east.
Silver Lady swings out of Big Ten and into Coal Creek Canyon. . .
. . .emerging soon after at Tunnel One. . .
Next stop: BN's former Burlington shops in Denver, where we had an accomodating shop foreman run us a lineup of where all the railroad's U25, U28 and U30B locomotives were. Mark had been given his bone--he'd seen the Rio Grande--and now we were in pursuit mode of my locomotive d'jour, BN's U25B fleet, of which only a half-dozen or so were still in service. This didn't sit well with Marc--here we were in Colorado, surrounded by his favorite Rio Grande, and I was leading him east to the flatlands of Nebraska on a pipedream to find what must be among his least-favorite locomotives. Looking back, I can only say. . I agree. What was he thinking?? Give up the Rockies for the prairies???
What was he thinking? High-sun GP30, U-boats at Brush. . .
By early afternoon, we were east of Denver, along the single-track former Q mainline, stopping at Brush to photoraph an eastbound with typical Lincoln to Denver power: GP30 2246/U28B 5454/GP30 2233/U30B 5477. We followed this ponderous drag east, right out of the sun, and eventually got bored with its slow presence. While even today this line east of Brush couldn't be called "swamped" with trains, at the time, there were perhaps three freights in each direction daily, a few locals, and an Amtrak each way. . .and that was it (today, there's a bit more traffic, and CSX-bound coal trains out of the Powder River Basin also run this way, along with their corresponding empties).We didn't see another train to McCook, the next division point. At the roundhouse rested local power: tasty former CB&Q GP20s, 30s and a U30B 5483. We stayed at a Best Western in town that night. I do remember it was clean and tidy.
By early afternoon, we were east of Denver, along the single-track former Q mainline, stopping at Brush to photoraph an eastbound with typical Lincoln to Denver power: GP30 2246/U28B 5454/GP30 2233/U30B 5477. We followed this ponderous drag east, right out of the sun, and eventually got bored with its slow presence. While even today this line east of Brush couldn't be called "swamped" with trains, at the time, there were perhaps three freights in each direction daily, a few locals, and an Amtrak each way. . .and that was it (today, there's a bit more traffic, and CSX-bound coal trains out of the Powder River Basin also run this way, along with their corresponding empties).We didn't see another train to McCook, the next division point. At the roundhouse rested local power: tasty former CB&Q GP20s, 30s and a U30B 5483. We stayed at a Best Western in town that night. I do remember it was clean and tidy.
BN green rarely looked THIS good. . .
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