After touching the engine, steam piping from it moments before it left Union Station, Bob Phillips got a tear in his eye. "This is what America was and what it should be," said Phillips, who lives in Golden and owns a steamboat. "It's when America made stuff that mattered."
Since 1867 & 2006
Monday, July 20, 2009
Cheyenne Frontier Days UP Special: A Story Worth Reading
It's not too often that railfans get their own press space, but when we do, it's a story worth reading. Favorite quote:
Monday, July 13, 2009
Future of the Region Written In Transportation Plans
In the early days of the automobile, a state's commitment to passable roads, also known as highways, varied. The difference of commitment could be so stark at times that a car that passed the border from one state to another went from an all-weather asphalt and concrete roadway to a rutted pit that snarled the tires and reduced travel to a veritable crawl. The U.S. Highway system, and later the Interstate network, eliminated the disparity and altered the method of travel in the United States on a fundamental level from rails and wagons to buses and cars. American culture, its way of life itself changed as a result, all within the period of about 50 years.
Another 50 years before that change started, an American pioneer surveyed a route to Denver for the Kansas Pacific Railroad. That surveyor was General William Palmer. It was no small migration he was a party to, and with this westward focus, Palmer saw a unique opportunity. While routes were strung west and east from the Mississippi River to the Pacific, no one had made a serious endeavor at a north-south connection between these lines. A connection between these routes would open up a new way of passing commerce between the two points. His initial plan was to connect Denver with El Paso, Texas. Eventually, he hoped to reach Mexico City and build trade relationships from there. Additionally, Palmer likely reasoned that the flow westward would eventually stabilize. The west coast was not a bottomless pit; it would eventually fill up and people would fill in. It did, about a century after his journey.
Since the westward expansion, just like water in a miner's pan, people have sloshed about, following the direction of money, prosperity and the hope of a better life and a brighter future. It has been a pursuit of happiness, some lives successful and others not as much. What has stuck, even through the liquidity of economic upheaval, is that people and the directions they travel have a sympathetic relationship. Good sources of revenue in a given location bring better roads. Better roads bring more people, and more people facilitate more good sources of revenue. Conversely, no revenue leads to poor roads. Poor roads leads to fewer people, and fewer people produce even less revenue. Therefore, it stands to reason that proponents of transportation, whatever their motive, ultimately advocate prosperity while naysayers advocate shrinking decline. This is a timeless principle, borne out over centuries of Western Civilization, from Roman roads to the latest commuter rail line. Why then, are naysayers given any credence when they raise the tired dogs of cost and doubt? We listen to them at the risk of our future.
Palmer's baby road was stopped by the snake of the Santa Fe Railway and never crossed Raton Pass on Colorado's southern border with New Mexico. Instead, it's westward wanderings to tap the Rocky Mountains gold and silver deposits to drive the rails further south became an end unto itself, eventually driving all the way to Salt Lake City, Utah. Had the Rio Grande actually reached El Paso, Denver's history and the remainder of the west would have looked far different today. What future will today's transportation efforts bring us? Will Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas be successful in their joint effort to secure the 11th high speed rail corridor for a vision similar to Palmer's ultimately succeed? Let's hope so, for our future's sake.
Articles:
Another 50 years before that change started, an American pioneer surveyed a route to Denver for the Kansas Pacific Railroad. That surveyor was General William Palmer. It was no small migration he was a party to, and with this westward focus, Palmer saw a unique opportunity. While routes were strung west and east from the Mississippi River to the Pacific, no one had made a serious endeavor at a north-south connection between these lines. A connection between these routes would open up a new way of passing commerce between the two points. His initial plan was to connect Denver with El Paso, Texas. Eventually, he hoped to reach Mexico City and build trade relationships from there. Additionally, Palmer likely reasoned that the flow westward would eventually stabilize. The west coast was not a bottomless pit; it would eventually fill up and people would fill in. It did, about a century after his journey.
Since the westward expansion, just like water in a miner's pan, people have sloshed about, following the direction of money, prosperity and the hope of a better life and a brighter future. It has been a pursuit of happiness, some lives successful and others not as much. What has stuck, even through the liquidity of economic upheaval, is that people and the directions they travel have a sympathetic relationship. Good sources of revenue in a given location bring better roads. Better roads bring more people, and more people facilitate more good sources of revenue. Conversely, no revenue leads to poor roads. Poor roads leads to fewer people, and fewer people produce even less revenue. Therefore, it stands to reason that proponents of transportation, whatever their motive, ultimately advocate prosperity while naysayers advocate shrinking decline. This is a timeless principle, borne out over centuries of Western Civilization, from Roman roads to the latest commuter rail line. Why then, are naysayers given any credence when they raise the tired dogs of cost and doubt? We listen to them at the risk of our future.
Palmer's baby road was stopped by the snake of the Santa Fe Railway and never crossed Raton Pass on Colorado's southern border with New Mexico. Instead, it's westward wanderings to tap the Rocky Mountains gold and silver deposits to drive the rails further south became an end unto itself, eventually driving all the way to Salt Lake City, Utah. Had the Rio Grande actually reached El Paso, Denver's history and the remainder of the west would have looked far different today. What future will today's transportation efforts bring us? Will Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas be successful in their joint effort to secure the 11th high speed rail corridor for a vision similar to Palmer's ultimately succeed? Let's hope so, for our future's sake.
Articles:
- NM, Colo., Texas seek high-speed rail link, - Denver Post - Jul 9 (also Houston Chronicle)
- Colo., Texas, N.M. seek high-speed passenger train,- Denver Post - Jul 9
- Wyoming rail study hangs on Colorado decisions,- Denver Post - Jul 9
- Three-state push seeks Denver-to-El Paso rail, - Denver Post - Jul 10
- High-speed passenger rail being planned between El Paso and Denver - Colorado Springs Gazette - Jul 9
- NM seeks high-speed rail with Colorado, Texas - New Mexico Business Journal - Jul 9
- CR: RMRA Presents I-70 & I-25 Options To DRCOG Today
- CR: Times and Seasons In the I-70 Corridor
- Rocky Mountain Rail Authority
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Fuel Cell Switcher Set To Test In Pueblo
BNSF Railway and Vehicle Projects Inc recently unveiled a new hydrogen fuel cell locomotive to a Topeka, Kansas crowd. The switcher will test at the DOT Test Center in Pueblo before taking its place in service in Los Angeles along side other "clean burning" switchers. The time of the move is unclear, but being the first of its kind, it has a lot to prove.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
A Done Deal - RTD Buys Boulder Line From UP
Despite slumping revenues and a continuing shortfall for it's FasTracks project, Denver's RTD has secured the right-of-way for a commuter rail line to Boulder. Well, kinda. They didn't secure the rail line into the city proper. In fact, they've gotten as far as Valmont.To make sure no one is mistaken, this is not the BNSF line from Denver to Boulder, a logical, direct approach which might be accomplished by the Northwest Rail Corridor (pdf). Instead, this is the North Metro Corridor (pdf), the Union Pacific line that follows I-25 to north of the NW Parkway interchange near 162nd Avenue (?!) and then turns west toward Boulder, following a serpentine right-of-way, dodging farms most of the way. RTD has transfer agreements governing the next three sales which will help them build the East Rail Corridor (pdf), the Gold Line (pdf) (Arvada) and a small portion of the West Line (pdf) already underway in Lakewood.
Opinion: Why are we going to Boulder... and, if money is tight, why are we going twice?
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
2009 Colorado Coal Loadings Continue To Lag Behind 2008
According to ProgressiveRailroading.com, Union Pacific is experiencing a lag compared to last year's coal loadings out of Colorado and the Powder River Basin in Wyoming. While several utilities have slowed down due to decreased demand, a few other factors have come into play. The article states,
Could it be that some preemptive belt-tightening has led to the delays? There's no conclusive evidence of this, but sometimes taking such steps has a tendency to worsen a situation instead of making the company more capable of weathering the current one.
The article did not mention any figures for BNSF.
“Several utility plants have been experiencing higher-than-usual occurrences of breakdowns and slow unloading situations, which has delayed the return of empty trains for loading,” UP officials said in a weekly coal train loading report.According to the same report, they've had a few mine production issues as well.
Could it be that some preemptive belt-tightening has led to the delays? There's no conclusive evidence of this, but sometimes taking such steps has a tendency to worsen a situation instead of making the company more capable of weathering the current one.
The article did not mention any figures for BNSF.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Garden Railway Open House
Garden railways come into their glory in the summertime. If someone ever offers you the chance to view their layout in their back yard, don't let it slip by! In case you're wondering when you'll ever be invited, today's the day!
Greg Posta of Ridgway, Colorado, has a backyard 1:10 scale model railroad emulating the
Rio Grande Southern with about 2,500 feet of track. He is doing a double fundraiser open house to benefit the San Juan Historical Society in their efforts to restore the Silverton caboose and to help his wife, Mary Posta, fight Multiple Sclerosis with an adult stem cell procedure. A donation of $10 covers the entry fee (the Silverton caboose) and the picnic lunch (Mary's MS). The open house is on June 27 & 28 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. See the Events Calendar entry for directions and more information!
Greg Posta of Ridgway, Colorado, has a backyard 1:10 scale model railroad emulating the
Rio Grande Southern with about 2,500 feet of track. He is doing a double fundraiser open house to benefit the San Juan Historical Society in their efforts to restore the Silverton caboose and to help his wife, Mary Posta, fight Multiple Sclerosis with an adult stem cell procedure. A donation of $10 covers the entry fee (the Silverton caboose) and the picnic lunch (Mary's MS). The open house is on June 27 & 28 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. See the Events Calendar entry for directions and more information!| June 27 | June 28 |
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Thursday, June 11, 2009
Media Relations On Cumbres Pass
A man believed to be an employee of the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad is a suspect in an assault on a Valley Courier reporter Wednesday. What could have precipitated this?
Apparently, it's a traffic accident. A truck and trailer tried to sneak past the C&TS train bound for Chama, New Mexico on a foggy afternoon, and the trailer of the truck was clipped. Engine 484 had minor damage, and the passengers were bused back to Chama. When a reporter from the Valley Courier started poking around and taking pictures, the last thing he might have expected to see was fireworks.
Draw your own conclusions from the article, but I'm wondering why would someone from the railroad deny that any accident happened twice and then take a cheap shot at a photographer? Business may be down, but that's not how you handle media relations, unless you're Sean Penn.
Let's see what develops.
Update 6/17/09
It seems like whatever did happen, the reporter blew things out of proportion when he wrote the story (linked above). According to Westword,
Apparently, it's a traffic accident. A truck and trailer tried to sneak past the C&TS train bound for Chama, New Mexico on a foggy afternoon, and the trailer of the truck was clipped. Engine 484 had minor damage, and the passengers were bused back to Chama. When a reporter from the Valley Courier started poking around and taking pictures, the last thing he might have expected to see was fireworks.
Draw your own conclusions from the article, but I'm wondering why would someone from the railroad deny that any accident happened twice and then take a cheap shot at a photographer? Business may be down, but that's not how you handle media relations, unless you're Sean Penn.
Let's see what develops.
Update 6/17/09
It seems like whatever did happen, the reporter blew things out of proportion when he wrote the story (linked above). According to Westword,
...It was a pretty wimpy punch," he [Winget] concedes. However, at the urging of Valley Courier publisher Keith Cerny, he reported the incident to the Conejos County Sheriff's Office due in part to what it symbolized. "It was an assault against newspapers and the freedom of the press,"...It isn't the first time a person has cited their first amendment rights after they've annoyed people and gotten a sour response. If the reporter had been injured, or if there was a concerted effort to suppress a story, it might have actually been newsworthy. Up to now, all that's been injured is a reporter's ego and a publisher's notion of superiority.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
What's A Drylander?
Railroading may figure prominently in the Northern Drylanders Museum in Nunn, Colorado, but it still makes me wonder what a drylander is.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Knowing The Facts About Trains
Trains Magazine has an article online backing up this month's cover article. The cover article itself posed an interesting question. You're at a party when, wonder of wonders, someone discovers that you're a train geek and they start talking about the "little known facts" of railroading, which actually could be myths. Do you know which are true facts and which are mythical falsehoods?- Standard gauge came from the width of a horses backside/a Roman chariot
- Rails-to-trails and then trails-to-rails actually works
- A passenger train's carbon footprint is less than the number of fully-loaded automobiles
- Trucks are losing the battle against freight trains
- Money-losing Amtrak costs more than highways or airlines
- A mile of railroad costs more than a mile of highway
- Maglev will never be more than a novelty
Are any of these true? You'll have definitive answers to these issues and more if you read the current issue of trains. Next time you're at a party, you might save yourself with these answers. Or maybe you'll just smile and nod as they go on in their ignorance.
Monday, June 1, 2009
Brief Video of Rio Grande Scenic Railroad's Steam Engine 18
Taking advantage of the ticket sale for the Rio Grande Scenic Railroad, I headed down to Alamosa on May 23rd to catch the San Luis & Rio Grande #18. Using my small hand-held, I captured this video of the steam engine pulling up in front of the Alamosa depot. I hope to have a modest trip report available soon, conditions permitting. For now, here's the brief video.
By the way, can anyone explain what the lever is by the air compressor? I'm looking at the thing that is clicking as it rotates.
By the way, can anyone explain what the lever is by the air compressor? I'm looking at the thing that is clicking as it rotates.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
ColoRail Filing Suit To Halt Current Union Station Plan
The Colorado Rail Passenger Association, one of the pro-rail advocacy groups in Colorado, is filing a lawsuit aimed at stopping the current plans of the powers at work re-developing Denver Union Station. According to the ColoRail press release,
I know that RTD has a real penchant for underestimating demand. In 1995, I cruised the parking lot at I-25 and Broadway forever looking for a parking space, even after emergency arrangements for "unpaved parking" in adjacent lots had been made. They never expected that their baby light rail line would be so wildly popular and their future growth was stunted because of inadequate planning.
That same year of 1995, Denver International Airport opened, replacing the old Stapleton International Airport. It's triumph was that it would likely never run out of concourse space like Stapleton did, as Concourses A through C were straddled on a straight line, connected by a tram system (why not more efficient rail vehicles?) that could be extended as far as necessary to accomodate future concouses farther out. With the forward thinking the planners used, we will be able to accomodate future generations of aircraft beyond the A380.
I can't help recalling Stapleton and RTD's failure to plan as I look at the present plans which freeze off any similar expansion possibilities with two massive ice cubes of buildings. ColoRail is right to file this suit and should be supported. In 50 or 100 years, DIA will definitely be in use. We should be able to say the same about Denver Union Station, but we won't unless these plans are stopped in their tracks.
More about DUS and the future of rail in Colorado
ColoRail finds the proposed plan short on transportation services that were committed to in the earlier planning processes and published documents. Specific concerns include the lack of expansion capacity for future transportation services, including planned passenger rail on the I-70 and Front Range corridors; insufficient passenger convenience and connectivity; and proposed project design features that are excessively costly to construct, will seriously disturb the neighborhood, and entail unnecessarily high operation and maintenance costs that have yet to be fully explained to the public.ColoRail got its start 20 years ago when Denver Union Station was threatened with being demolished. The group's original name, Save Our Station, was changed when they accomplished their goal. Their mission has since expanded to advocate state-wide and inter-regional passenger rail service. It seems they're returning to their roots when they seek to preserve the vitality and centrality of Union Station from the greed of land developers who treat rail like an afterthought.
I know that RTD has a real penchant for underestimating demand. In 1995, I cruised the parking lot at I-25 and Broadway forever looking for a parking space, even after emergency arrangements for "unpaved parking" in adjacent lots had been made. They never expected that their baby light rail line would be so wildly popular and their future growth was stunted because of inadequate planning.
That same year of 1995, Denver International Airport opened, replacing the old Stapleton International Airport. It's triumph was that it would likely never run out of concourse space like Stapleton did, as Concourses A through C were straddled on a straight line, connected by a tram system (why not more efficient rail vehicles?) that could be extended as far as necessary to accomodate future concouses farther out. With the forward thinking the planners used, we will be able to accomodate future generations of aircraft beyond the A380.
I can't help recalling Stapleton and RTD's failure to plan as I look at the present plans which freeze off any similar expansion possibilities with two massive ice cubes of buildings. ColoRail is right to file this suit and should be supported. In 50 or 100 years, DIA will definitely be in use. We should be able to say the same about Denver Union Station, but we won't unless these plans are stopped in their tracks.
More about DUS and the future of rail in Colorado
- Latest coverage by Joel Warner of Follow That Story
- Trains News Alert (subscriber service)
- What would a big city project be without union labor?
- RTD's FasTracks Denver Union Station page
- Bob Brewster Op-Ed In DBJ: People Must Be Heard
- Colorado Rail Passenger Association
- ColoRail President Ira Schriber Op-Ed On DUS Dilemma
- Rocky Mountain Rail Authority
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