Coal Fades From the Durango & Silverton

Over 142 years of coal-fired steaming is finally coming to an end in Durango. 

Let that sink in a moment. Your grandfather never knew a day without coal affecting his life. Whether he knew it or not, coal fired his morning whether he used an electric toaster or a gas-fired water heater. The coffee he drank was brought to his country by a steam ship or roasted by steam or brewed and somewhere in the loop, there was, as likely as not, coal. 

When I was a kid, my class and I toured the massive Coors Brewery in Golden, on the other side of Clear Creek from the Colorado Railroad Museum. In the bowels of the plant, generating the power for the entire complex, boiling mash, and heating the entire plant as well as the Colorado School of Mines! Inside the plant, massive boilers fired by natural gas and--you got it--coal surged with energy for all that light, heat and cold, to make the best beer in the world (micro brews notwithstanding), along with the best geological minds known to man. I might be a bit biased because my uncle Clifford graduated from there. Inside the furnace, a large, flaming tornado of coal whips around in the combustion chamber in a scene that is slightly terrifying even while it is contained inside by convective air currents and steel walls. The power plant continues to burn on even today, but with more flexibility.1

A coal fire inside a locomotive is no fire tornado but no less intense; a scene worthy of a medieval poetic vision of hell. Small mountains and valleys aglow in hundreds and thousands of shades of luminescent orange. Open the door used to feed the iron horse and a wall of heat rolls out and bathes the entire landing with radiant energy. Leave the door open too long and it threatens to set the denim and wool worn in the cab alight. Children, especially those fascinated by fire, visit the cab with their parents to get a peep of the firebox. Watch the warmth fill their cheeks and their eyes alight with that amazing flame that powered us out of the sticks.

For the men and women firing a locomotive with coal is part science and part art. The engineer may command the locomotive but the fireman is the power and heart of the locomotive. Fire it well and you arrive at the destination on time or early. Fire it worse and the speed suffers, the schedule falls behind, or it could be that you don't arrive at all. On mountain railroads like the Rio Grande and Colorado & Southern, along with their surviving remnants, coal firing meant a specific dynamic for the cab. 

It was said long ago, "The engineer sleeps on the uphill side, the fireman sleeps on the downhill," Little sleeping ever happened for either side of the cab, obviously. Nevertheless, when the train is going uphill, an engineer need only make sure the engine is not slipping. Meanwhile the fireman must shovel a great deal of coal to generate all the steam the engine is using, pulling against all the cars and gravity. He needs to make sure there's an even bed of coal burning and burning as evenly as possible, even while jostling and shaking its way up the grade. Downhill, conversely, the fireman rests more as the engine is mostly idle, only generating air pressure for the engineer. His job is to keep the entire train from gravity's clutches with the air brakes. An engineer who wasted steam and a fireman who wasted coal meant problems. 

The art of steaming is still alive and well because every steam railroad uses the same basic principles to drive a locomotive. The art of firing a locomotive is going the way of the manual transmission and handmade consumables, unfortunately. There are several reasons, and not just the obvious one.

The first and most obvious is that coal produces ash in the form of cinders. Not only must these cinders be cleaned out every day at a special location called the ash pit, but during combustion, small bits of still-burning coal in the process of becoming ash can be carried through the boiler tubes and out the stack with the smoke of the engine. The more the engine works, the more ash it produces. The harder the steam works, the more forceful the stack ejects the ash, carrying it further. On windy days and in dry conditions, this has become a serious risk to the railroad and, sadly, more than one wildfire has sprung from an ill-fated cinder that escaped and flew too far. This makes the railroad a risk to every family in the valley. Mitigation of removing combustible fuels and screens and water misting the stack have not been enough some years. In fact, the very scenery of San Juan National Forest the train travels through is put at risk of burning to ashes. And you thought the cinders hurt your eyes!

Another reason is the coating of ash that has drifted down over the Animas River valley. Some years, in downtown Durango it was palpable. Although the railroad has worked in recent decades to decrease the burden on surrounding businesses by using a wood-based alternative fuel to bunker the locomotives overnight.

This brings us to a hidden reason for switching from coal. Every night, the roundhouse and the engines idled in the yard must bunker each coal fire. The boiler of each engine to be used the next day needs to be kept warm with a fire that continues to burn through the night, tended overnight by staff. No bunker, and a crew would have to show up much earlier each morning and consequently run into service time limits. Instead, for more than 14 decades, a hostler tends each fire in the roundhouse as the engines doze with steam wisps and the quiet of a small downtown. 

For months, the mechanical staff have labored to switch the insides of each Mikado from coal to oil. Rather than working a bed of fire, a fireman simply works the atomizer and heat to bring the fuel to life in the firebox. The oil is kept warm, lest it get too thick to form the mist, but otherwise requires no skill and no magic to coax rock to burn. Last Mikado to change is engine 481 which will undergo conversion this spring. From the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad blog, 

... The D&SNG’s last active coal burning locomotive, number 481, will see its final winter as a coal burning engine before undergoing a conversion to burn oil later in 2024. “A few years ago I always thought we would want to keep a coal burner,” said Randy Babcock, AHR Chief Mechanical Officer “the reality is that it just doesn’t make business sense to maintain a locomotive that we only intend to use a quarter of the year.” [archive]

Much as I would love for the only continuous, all Colorado narrow gauge heritage railroad to continue to burn the same fuel they've always used from Hesperus,2 the railroad has to live in harmony with everyone else in their valley. Two towns and two counties rely more than a little on this enterprise that prospers every summer and winter with a great amount of tourism, the majority from outside the region. 

The change has already been very apparent on engines emerging from Durango each day the past summer and fall, with engine stacks free of cinder screens or water halos and, my sister will be happy to note, children will have to go somewhere else to get a cinder in their eye!3 I will miss the smell of coal smoke, but its a small price to pay for the health and wellbeing of a living, breathing steam engine program showing everyone what nineteenth century tech can do for people in the 2020s. 

As of February, seats for early summer season are readily available. Come May, that will absolutely change. We're all counting on it! ⚒

Footnotes

1 - Colorado Energy Nations Boiler 5 Upgrade Project at Powermag.com and at archive.org

2 - King II mine - Global Energy Monitor wiki

3 - When I asked my sister if she remembered her trip 45 years later, she said that her eyes still hurt. Bless her heart!

POTD - Old Bridge With a New Perspective

Today, we are finishing our look at Timothy Tonge's work along the Joint Line between Larkspur and Palmer Lake, an examination that wouldn't be complete without a stop at the ATSF bridge just south of Larkspur. This bridge is no stranger to those familiar with the line as it passes over both East Plum Creek and West Fox Farm Road as it splits from South Spruce Mountain Road. Spruce Mountain, of course, was the old Denver highway before I-25 was built. On July 19, 2019, a pair of BNSF swooshes lead a coal train south over the bridge on the climb to Palmer Lake.

Photo of the Day - Timothy Tonge

Now to reveal the hidden theme mentioned last week: All three of the Photos of the Day have been taken using a drone. It would be impossible to get each of these shots any other way, unless Mr. Tonge has quietly developed an ability to fly and take photos at the same time. Each of the shots has given us a new view of BNSF operations on this very picturesque, scenic portion of the Joint Line. Done well, a drone can elevate anyone's photographic abilities. Done poorly, it can be a menace and even illegal. I think we can all agree that long-time railroad photographer Timothy Tonge has done well!⚒

POTD - A Painted Lady Came Out West

Today being Tuesday, it's fitting to return with another Photo of the Day by Timothy Tonge. On July 23, 2019, it's not quite mid-morning and we're further north along the Joint Line near Larkspur. A rare morning shower graces the sky with a fraction of a rainbow, reflecting the colorful locomotives. Second in the locomotive lashup is BNSF 8480, an EMD SD70ACe not quite 5 years old. She is being led by KCS 4604, a GE AC4400CW in Kansas City Southern's popular heritage paint scheme. Together, they're hauling a loaded coal train south toward the Gulf of Mexico, a once-common sight that's becoming rarer and rarer these days.

Photo of the Day - Timothy Tonge

This paint scheme is not without controversy, especially in modeler circles when they focus on exactly what shade the darkest color is. Most folks say black, but a closer look and the company press releases both reveal it's actually a Brunswick Green, a color only bright sunlight can reveal. Regardless, the red Scotch-lite stripes and the clean lines make the KCS colors a natural favorite, especially when compared with the old red letters on flat gray scheme they stuck to for years. I've heard it called the Southern Belle paint scheme. It fits.

PS: This related photo would have been a second POTD. Unfortunately, it seems like the horizontal level leans a bit to the right. I really love the shot otherwise, in particular because of its strong composition and ideal "hero" pose. A re-crop could fix this.⚒

The Ghost Railroad Hiding In Your Backyard

Every once in a while, an e-mail from the contact form catches my eye, like this one:

Dear Colorado Railroads,
Wasn't there a line running generally SE from Longmont, CO, generally thru Erie, then past Broomfield? If so, what became of it?


Regards,

Gregory Iwan

Dear Gregory,

Yes, there was! In fact, this area is steeped in the history of numerous railroads because the Front Range corridor between Denver and Cheyenne was the first to see development by railroads, and all of them wanted to be the first to get to wherever it was they were going! The period of 1870 to 1890 was a wild time here, with legal and financial wrangling, a great deal of courting of public opinion, strong arming, and more than a few shady dealings like kidnapping judges and taking of property by force!

I must admit that when I was initially searching, I was confused. I came across a narrow-gauge line running due north from Broomfield to Longmont. But you aren't referring to that line. The only line with all three points you mentioned was standard gauge and, strangely, it was built by the same company as the narrow gauge line! Suffice to say, this railroad has a complex, if brief, history.

The Denver, Utah & Pacific had narrow-gauge aspirations as a mountain railroad, and its ambitions were as big as its name. However, its progress seems a little more mundane. The first goal was to lay claim to a route west through the canyons and that's where their line through Longmont comes in. They were working on reaching Lyons and a potential route west over the Continental Divide. This appears to have caught the attention of the Chicago Burlington and Quincy Railroad. The CB&Q was also looking to expand westward of Denver and bought control of the DU&P. Because the CB&Q was a standard gauge carrier, the DU&P began converting or flat out re-building its system to match the Burlington's gauge.

The line was constructed in 1889 from Burns Junction on the Denver, Marshall & Boulder main line a little west of Broomfield by the Denver, Utah & Pacific in standard gauge. To save time and money, DU&P used 5 miles of a grade built by the Denver, Western & Pacific but not actually used. Once complete, they leased the line to the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad on September 1st of that year. CB&Q operated the railroad via its Burlington & Missouri River Railroad in Nebraska (phew!) subsidiary until February 1908, when the title was obtained by CB&Q outright.

The line connected through Erie with Longmont's branch to Lyons, which had to be standard gauged along with the connection to Denver, but the Burlington would eventually link it with Montana by controlling the Colorado & Southern whose Wind River Canyon line through Casper and Thermopolis, Wyoming.

Map

The line itself served many mines that came and went, but coal mining was curtailed by miners strikes in the late 1910s and early 20s, and the mines waned in profitability. Most of the spurs were gone by 1936 and passenger traffic also dwindled. Then in 1951, 1.5 miles of the main line between the connections with the Lafayette Loop was abandoned, diverting all traffic over the loop. From then until 1970, the line remained intact, more or less.

What became of it? As near as I can piece together, vandals burnt the bridge at Idaho Creek, severing the line. Rather than rebuild it, the Burlington Northern (I presume, based on corporate timelines) elected to serve Lafayette and Longmont via their other connections made by the control and eventual merger with the Colorado & Southern. Erie lost service in the 1980s or 90s. It's vague and unsubstantiated, but that's the best I can come up with at this time.

For a serious look at the line, I managed to find a book available in Denver's Public Library called Denver, Longmont and Northwestern by Berlyn (Billy) L. Boyles of the Rocky Mountain Railroad Club. I have not seen a copy of it myself but it looks promising, if a bit dated.

It's a little surprising to find this ghost railroad hiding in plain sight, running right through people's backyards. Who knows how much more history lies beneath the surface?⚒

References

Colorado Railroads by Tivis Wilkins
Tracking Ghost Railroads in Colorado by Robert Ormes
Colorado's Mountain Railroads by Robert LaMassena
Historical USGS Topo Maps
Rick Steel C&S History, UtahRails.net

On This Date: Runaway Coal Train Pushed By Wind For Nearly 100 MIles

Wind damage is no stranger to the
northeastern Colorado plains. 
Photo: Sherrif Nestor, Lincoln
 County Sheriffs Office

This weekend marks a mostly forgotten, strange-but-true event that I find pretty remarkable. Fully 132 years ago, residents out on the eastern plains of Colorado and southwest Nebraska were experiencing a wind storm of such severity that, though it had no vortex or definable center, it did damage worthy of a tornado. It tore the roof off of Akron's roundhouse of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy railroad. However, what was truly remarkable were the events of a couple hours on a Wednesday afternoon, March 23rd, 1884.

What follows is verbatim from Trains & Travel's August 1953 issue from a 1934 Railway Age article retelling of what the Lincoln, Nebraska State Journal reported (reprinted by the 1884 Railroad Gazette).

"It will be remembered that on Thursday^⚒ March 26, there was a wind which amounted almost to a tornado. At Akron, it unroofed the roundhouse and did other damage. About 5 o'clock that evening, the wind, at its strongest, started a train of eight box cars loaded with coal that was standing on the side track. This eight-car train ran through the split switch and on eastward over the main track. The track was nearly level, but some distance this side it is downgrade, and the wind was so strong that it moved the cars more rapidly than passenger-train speed.

"The operator at Akron noticed the runaway train as it broke loose and sent the alarm down the line. Everything was sidetracked and the crazy train had the right of way. The Cannon Ball train westward was sidetracked just in time. Marvelous as it may seem, those runaway cars ran 100 miles, passing eight stations, over a track which is for a great part of the distance almost perfectly level, with no propelling power but the wind and their own inertia. They ran the hundred miles in less than three hours, station agents and others holding their breath with awe as the cars whirled by at high speed. They passed Haiger [69 miles from Akron] at about 40 miles an hour and on the downgrade east of Akron are estimated to have run 20 miles in 18 minutes. At Benkelman, 95 miles from Akron, a freight engine was run out following the runaway train, and after a chase of a few miles, closed the gap between itself and the freight cars, and was coupled^⚔ to them." 

Notes
⚒ - The difference in days of the week, specifically Wednesday vs. Thursday, is likely because of an error of someone along the line counting the days from 1884 to 1953 to calculate the day of the week, quite possibly forgetting that 1900 was not a leap year. If it did occur on March 26, 1884, it was a Wednesday.

⚔ - Because it was prior to the Railroad Safety Appliance Act, passed in 1894 and effective 1900, it's not readily known if the rolling stock on the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad, which was the subsidiary of the CB&Q for the railroad in Colorado and Nebraska, were equipped with Janney automatic couplers, the rough predecessor to the standard coupler used today. If not, although a link-and-pin coupling might be difficult, mating a connection would still be possible, especially if it happened at a slower speed like 10 miles per hour.

Map of the Route

The idea of a runaway train, even 132 years ago, being pushed 100 miles by the wind might sound like a bunch of hokum at first, but a railcar with steel wheels on steel rails has a lot less rolling resistance than one might encounter with say a trailer or a wagon. Despite the characterization of the line as flat and relatively straight, the entire distance is mostly downgrade, losing 2,137 feet in altitude over 93.6 miles, yielding an average of -0.43% grade. I'm not sure if that's enough to keep a car rolling on it's own, but if straight-line winds of 60 or 80 MPH pushed on something broad and tall enough, it's more than likely to move along at quite a clip. Covering 20 miles in 18 minutes, 8 boxcars loaded with coal would be moving faster than 60 MPH! Imagine watching that roll through Yuma!

Is it possible it could happen again? Yes. Is it probable? I believe if given the right conditions, it would be probable, but not as likely today because of the difference in size and use of high side gondolas, along with higher emphasis on securing loads for safety.◊

POTD - Bowie Black Diamonds

Photo of the Day: Kevin the Krazy 1

A Union Pacific coal drag leaves Somerset towards Paonia, allowing a worker of a private orchard to cool his heels while it clears his crossing. While coal from eastern states has all but played out or otherwise dropped from domestic use, "high-BTU, low-sulfur, compliance thermal coal" from Bowie on the former Rio Grande is still in demand. On the other hand, recent layoffs at the same mine have threatened to destabilize the western slope's economy and make scenes like this one vanish forever. The first of two POTDs this week by Kevin A. Sadowski.◊

POTD: Brawny Muscle At Mitchell On Tennessee Pass

Perhaps nowhere--at least not in the last 40 years--is the idea of railroading in Colorado more realized than Tennessee Pass. A former narrow gauge route surveyed as a way to reach the riches of Leadville's mines and supply them, punched through the summit with a tunnel bore and classic lopsided profile of 1.7% grade on one side and 3% on the other, Tennessee Pass runs right through the heart of the state and until the Union Pacific merger in 1996, served with distinction as the highest mainline in the nation.

Photo of the Day: Mike Danneman

A whopping ten units on Tennessee Pass pull and shove their coal train up 3% grade at Mitchell, Colorado, September 5, 1995. With new AC4400CW and two manned helper sets, Mr. Danneman says, "This was Tennessee Pass at SP’s best!" It's hard to disagree, Mike.◊

PS: For those interested, Fred Frailey (one of the best) writes about the Long Autumn of Tennessee Pass in his blog at Trains magazine (2012).

POTD - Late Summer Glory Days

The summer sun is quickly fleeting away for 2014. Have you made it out to catch a few trains at work? Me neither. ☹ All is not lost, however. Labor Day weekend is fast approaching and that means that a lot of us have a few extra hours to slip away and photograph something that will last a lot longer than what most of us do for work. No one dies wishing they'd spent more hours working.

For inspiration, I offer a few POTDs for your consideration!

Photo of the Day: David Sheppard

David Sheppard captured this bronzed bunch of Union Pacific locomotives led by 5711, traveling with a full load of coal southbound at Greenland, Colorado on the morning of August 20th, 2014. It's a common sight on the Front Range south of Denver, but does that make it any less glorious?◊

POTD: Ah, Springtime In Palmer Lake!

Exactly what season it is might fool many a viewer but not locals and certainly not Joe Blackwell. He caught this BNSF southbound coal drag behind SD70MAC #9719 coming through Palmer Lake after the storm in the background left more than a little hail behind.
Photo Joe Blackwell

Today's POTD is a set of coming-and-going photos by Palmer Lake's Joe Blackwell. The recent spate of hailstorms that have rushed northward along Front Range has not passed unnoticed by railroad photographers. The juxtaposition of winter white from storms whose winds "shake the darling buds of May" with their bright green leaves seems irresistible to the shutterbug.

It's the same train, same vantage point, but a completely different perspective! BNSF SD70MAC #9767, from the same order as the lead unit, trails a pumpkin in almost mirror fashion of the other end of the train. The same cannot be said of the skies.
Photo: Joe Blackwell

Of particular interest is the contrast between the skies of the two photographs. This is no trick. The storm and the innocent-looking cotton puffs are indeed in the same sky. The only difference is the angle and the time it took for the length of the train to pass. It's just a hint of the volatile nature of springtime in the Rockies.◊

POTD: Shamrocks, Clovers, Three Days Are Over

Mike Danneman, whose photos are 3 for 3 this week on POTD, has delivered a fine string from his flickr account. The St. Patrick's Day theme this week has been pretty fun ...for me, at least! Monday, the obvious connection was the green locomotive. Tuesday was less obvious with Rio Grande's last 3 locomotives pulling together as a single unit, a subtle nod to Patrick's use of a shamrock (similar to clover) to teach the concept of the Trinity to his friends. Today, it's even more obscure for those who don't know their Irish lore.

Southern Pacific never looked better than August 1, 1999, squeezing between rockfall fencing
and rafters intent on enjoying Browns Canyon and the Arkansas in the short summer season.
Photo: Mike Danneman

Yes, in one of the crueler changes of the UP-SP merger (also mentioned all 3 days, unintentionally), the snaking coal drags and other serpentine trains that plied the Tennessee Pass route have vanished. Tennessee Pass was the original standard gauge route "Thru the Rockies" before the acquisition of the Denver & Salt Lake by the Rio Grande and it's official merger in 1947.

Today's photo is perhaps as exceptional as they come. Thank you, Mr. Danneman, for sharing these with us!◊

POTD: St. Patrick's Day Green Cruises By On The Moffat Road

BN and March 17th seem to go together, don't you think? In this case, Mike Danneman captured a surviving BN locomotive in Cascade Green on the long ramp of a grade toward the Flat Irons and the Moffat Tunnel. As a direct result of the UP-SP merger, BNSF obtained trackage rights over the Moffat Road and since then has sent a remarkable quantity of trains via that route.

Spartan-nosed BN 7062, an EMD SD40-2, leads it's Stockton-based consist through Rocky, passing
a Union Pacific coal drag with it's distributed power visible behind the derail stand on Oct 1 1999.
Photo: Mike Danneman

No stranger to trackage rights, BN had long enjoyed the fruits of it's agreement with the Rio Grande for a connection between Denver and it's southern Colorado assets along the Joint Line. Now with well over 15 years on the route, BNSF's colors appear to be on the Moffat to stay.◊

POTD: Blending into Plain Sight

Photo: Frank Keller

Sometimes railroad photography is nothing but a locomotive and a frame, or even a simple headlight or a machine used to create one special part for one piece the railroad simply couldn't do without. Other times you have to search for a sign of the railroad in the photograph. It seems that sometimes it's far afield, still others it's right in front of you and you wouldn't know it. In this case on the Joint Line, it's both.

On the cool morning of October 24, 2010, the bright orange of this BNSF coal train blends in with the autumn brush colors as it descends from Monument below the watchful gaze of the Rampart Range and the northern reaches of the Air Force Academy grounds along the Rio Grande right-of-way. The other half of the Joint Line, the Santa Fe right-of-way, is in the immediate foreground, abandoned 41 years ago, with a handful of pilings and a single bent showing the former trestle site for what it is.◊

POTD: Tunnel Motor at Minturn

Photo: Mike Danneman

Today's Photo of the Day comes from Mike Danneman. His photo, titled Tunnel Motor at Minturn, captured Rio Grande SD40T-2 #5398 at the head of a westbound coal train waiting for a new crew in Minturn before departing for Dotsero, Glenwood Springs and points west. Mr. Danneman's choice of including the rail for the foreground is no mistake. The top of the rail is where everything happens for this train and the entire Rio Grande Railroad! The more I look at this photo, the more I like it. That's a good sign!◊

BNSF To Protect Joint Line With Fire Train

According to Trains Magazine's News Wire, BNSF is sending a "fire train" to assist with protecting sections of the Joint Line threatened by the Waldo Canyon fire, which is currently threatening several communities, most notably Colorado Springs. The sections of the Joint Line under threat are actually owned by Union Pacific, which inherited the originally narrow-gauge main line of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad in the UP-SP merger September 11, 1996. Despite this, BNSF's trackage rights go back to the USRA and World War I, and keeping the line in service is paramount to keep Powder River and Yampa coal flowing south to Texas.

POTD - Vanishing Color: Grinstein Green

Burlington Northern ^(W) was gone only 2 years when Joe Blackwell snapped this photo of a BN triplet of SD70MACs in Executive or "Grinstein Green" livery. It's presence on the joint line didn't surprise anyone, however. Merged on December 31, 1996, BN acquired the Santa Fe's joint ownership of the Joint Line, adding strength to the adage, "the more things change, the more they stay the same."

Nonetheless, BNSF would experiment with paint schemes and in 10 years, the presence of Grinstein green with cream and red trim would become more and more rare with the orange and green/black of BNSF taking the lions' share of coal down the Front Range. Yet, as we will see, the green of BN is more persistent than yesterday's SP.

A patched BNSF SD70MAC, 9801 and two un-patched sisters lead a string of coal loads
down the single track section of Colorado's Joint Line outside the town of Palmer Lake.
Photo: Joe Blackwell

PS: While you visit Joe's photos at RailPictures.Net, stop by and take a look at my friend "Hemi's" album of Mountain Railroading in the Rockies.

POTD - Vanishing Color: Summit Tunnel

Once upon a time, not so long ago, there were four western Class I railroads. Instead of yellow or orange locomotives, there were green ones, red ones, grey ones, blue ones and even a few left over from the previous mergers. It was a much more colorful west. Strangely, others who remembered further back bemoaned the lack of diverse colors even then. We don't know what we have until it's gone. This week's theme for Photo of the Day (POTD) is vanishing colors.

Monday's vanishing colors POTD is one from "Slideshow Bruce" Fingerhood titled "summit tunnel," Early afternoon sunshine highlights half the nose of the southbound unit, yielding a nice contrast between the left and right sides and also to the smoky confines from which the unit has just emerged. This is one of the better photographs from this now silent location. Perhaps the most recent loss of color, the UP-SP merger would shutter the Tennessee Pass route from Dotsero to just west of Canon City and cover Rio Grande gold and black EMDs and Southern Pacific gray and red GE locomotives with Armour yellow paint and patches.

Southern Pacific locomotive 175, a GE-AC4400CW heads down from the summit of a
still-active Tennessee Pass in June 1996. UP would complete the merger in mere months
Photo: Bruce Fingerhood

POTD - Coal Glides Down the Divide

Mike Yuhas is a well-traveled photographer whose site is chock-full of great photos, primarily from the Midwest and Great Lakes regions. Trains magazine has been running a number of his entries for their Photo of the Day. Considering the skies in evidence, Trains picked a well-lit  morning shot of BNSF 9226, an EMD SD70-ACe bringing a load of coal south down Gen. William Palmer's Divide into the Arkansas River drainage.

Photo: Mike Yuhas

POTD - An experiment with good results

Sometimes a photographer takes a leap of faith with his audience and tries something new. Kevin Morgan, no stranger to CR's POTD, took such a leap with this shot. Kevin confesses, "This was one of those unplanned shots that just kind of happens sometimes!"

A UP coal load descends the Moffat Route toward Arvada Colorado, passing through Tunnel One,
(left of center) before rounding the curve over Colorado 72 and  through Blue Mtn. crossing on March 4, 2012.
Photo: Kevin Morgan 

POTD - Snow And Hunter Orange On the Western Slope

If there was one thing this picture reminds me of, it's hunting! Yes, to keep their crews safe during hunting season, BNSF paints their locomotives in hunter orange! Well, maybe. But even so, it makes for a nifty side benefit, right? A BNSF coal drag makes it's way past Dotsero early on in February 2010.

Photo of the Day: Scott McClarrinon

POTD - Big Ten 16 Years Ago

Denver's altitude is 5,280 feet above sea level, earning it the obvious moniker, the Mile High City. The railroad route directly west was built as Denver, Northwestern & Pacific Railroad and came to be owned by its successors, Denver & Salt Lake Railroad and Denver & Salt Lake Railway, as well as Denver & Rio Grande Western, Southern Pacific, and lately, Union Pacific through a series of mergers. It's apex was first at Rollins (Corona) Pass at 11,680 feet ASL and then inside  Moffat Tunnel at 9,239 feet. Making up the difference (6400 and 3959 feet respectively) while at the same time keeping the gradient manageable and cost efficient was a balancing act that meant gaining altitude as evenly as possible. If there was a ramp of earth, much like Sherman Hill in Wyoming, the construction engineers would have had little trouble. As it was, construction from Denver into the foothills was the most difficult part. They had to claw and scrape for elevation to reach Boulder Canyon and the Flatirons. A tongue of land jutting out from the foothills became the stepping stone between the western high plains and the east face of the Rocky Mountains. The long, winding turns climbing onto and upon the butte are both ten degrees curvature, thus named the little ten and big ten curves.

On April 8, 1995, a Southern Pacific coal train descends through Big Ten and
approaches Little Ten curves west of Denver, 18 months before the UP merger
Photo: Rolf Stumpf