Day 6, Friday, June 3
Denver to Cheyenne, Wyo.

Photos by Dave Ingles

The second part of today's itinerary, the "Coal Line" built in the 1980s by BN, with later C&NW/UP participation, is what drew most riders to this Explorers, as we were allegedly the first "revenue" (i.e., public, vs. railroad business-car trains) passenger train to traverse it. The slump in coal traffic allowed BNSF to say a quick "Yeah, sure" when Clark Johnson or Jim Fetchero, acting on prompts from me and probably others, said why not ask BNSF since the planned routing, from Orin Jct. thru Casper, Wyo, up to Laurel, Mont., and then east, had been covered in August 1999 on the Buy Miles (AAPRCO) "National Parks Special" train northbound, with an overnight layover at Casper. The irony is, while Clark Johnson and most other mileage collectors on board needed the Coal Line, I did not, having hi-railed it in 1981, when it was mostly single track with brand-new CTC, with friend Jerry Pinkepank, then Division Supt. at Alliance, Nebr., for BN, as a "backgrounder" for a TRAINS magazine article on steel rail I was working on.

Because of the length of our ride today — 405 miles — though shorter than Amarillo-Denver, has many more photos, it is presented in two parts, splitting at Cheyenne, Wyo. This first part afforded the best views of the actual Front Range of the Rockies' mountain peaks. The day was sunny as, with me on Caritas' platform, we left Denver Union Station at 730 a.m., after the arrival of the westbound California Zephyr. The first photo shows a crowd off an RTD commuter train streaming toward the 16th St. Mall after arriving, followed by the front end of the Zephyr and then views of the interlocking at the north end of Union Station, where all platform tracks intersect. RTD's commuter-M.U. shop is on a western line not yet in service, so airport trainsets do 'interchange."

As we swung away toward the 23rd St. diamond with the BNSF-UP main line by the BN diesel shop (see Steve Patterson's 1960s view here from a D&RGW Alco PA cab in Summer 2016 CLASSIC TRAINS), an inbound airport train went by. A soon-to-open commuter line is overhead, and the Rockies' Coors Field is at the left. I suppose "indicator' means "signal" in today's urban railroading.

As we crossed the 23rd St. diamonds at 7:41 after waiting 6 minutes, a northbound BNSF coal empty with severn units on the point waited for us.

The name "Prospect" survives, on an old DRGW-style sign. Prospect Jct. was historically a small one-story cabin governing the junction of Rio Grande's line thru the city with the lead from Denver Union Station and also C&S trackage heading north, which we are on. All the building construction you see is between the BNSF-UP freight corridor thru the central city and I-25, called "the Valley Highway" when we vacationed in Colorado a few times in the 1950s.

Gaining BNSF's ex-C&S track north, we look back at downtown. On the left you can see the flyover above the 23td St. diamonds for the northern RTD commuter lines,

Heading toward UP's ex-Rio Grande North Yard, I spotted these hoppers, which are unusual in that they haven't been tagged. "MoPac Lives" for you buzz saw and "screaming eagle" fans.

A glimse of the North Yard office and some UP power. The yard also served the Rock Island back in the day.

BNSF SD40-2s worked at the intermodal facility on he east side. 1844 was my house address on Sycamore Road when I was a kid in Homewood, Ill. (There won't be a quiz on this occasional trivia.)

The NFL is everywhere!

Miscellaneous local power on the UP side, as we approached Utah Jct. at 8:05.

Shortly the Arvada commuter line, to open soon, sails over us. It will follow BNSF's branch to Golden (Coors brewery) on a parallel right of way. I covered C&S's line as far as the Colorado Railroad Museum ca. 1960 on the arrival move of an old Colorado Midland (IIRC) business car, on the daily "Beer Train" behind SD9s. 

Soon the Westminster commuter line, also to open this year, joins us, to follow our route, and proposals for eventual extensions to Boulder and Longmont are in the plans. Before we leave the nascent RTD commuter network, allow an explanation of why what is very much like a light-rail network operation is with "heavy commuter rail" MU's instead. The light-rail line to Littleton, which is alongside the "Joint Line" of BNSF and UP, has been open for years, but allegedly a BNSF coal train some time back derailed alongside it, with some coal spilling onto the light-rail tracks. A light-rail train struck the coal, but either didn't derail and/or there were no injuries, but this incident caused the eventual agreement among FRA and local parties that if a right of way was to be, in effect, shared with an active freight line, the transit line must be "heavy rail," not "light rail." Or so goes the story.

En route north, we were chased by Joe McMillan and mutual friend Mike Danneman, a former Art Director for TRAINS who moved to Arvada, Colo. a couple of decades ago, and Joe kindly approved using his shot from the U.S. 36 (years ago, the Denver-Boulder Turnpike) of our special passing Lower Church Lake at Milepost 12 from Denver. It's not my shot but it does show our train against the Front Range! Thanks, Joe! They bypassed Boulder and sent this similar view from along Hwy. 119 at 63rd St., toward Longmont, at C&S MP 35.

This pair of local engines was parked at Longmont, whose depot we passed at 9:18 before swinging to due north-south up the middle of Atwood Street. A companion shot is the lead photo for this album's introduction, showing the "BN" look with the Front Range as backdrop. A couple of shots,  along Atwood follow, all taken from Caritas' platform..In times past, there were no curbs in the center, the rails and ties buried in the paved street; the same thing has changed on Mason Street in Fort Collins. This line is busier than in C&S days, although this is not a normal route for Powder River Basin, the increase more coming from new on-line businesses and owing to the BN merger.

North of Longmont, we passed a local engine, BNSF 2548, which I shot from inside Caritas over someone's shoulder. Then I shot Long's Peak, a "King of the Front Range" at 14,259-foot elevation, and then we met two freights sidetracked in the Longs Peak passing siding, but I got no shots of them. We had to wait for the second one to clear the north switch, all of which sewed up 15 minutes, us clearing at 9:49.

We curved into Berthoud at 9:53, but I missed the station photo. Next was Fort Collins, which has built a rapid-transit busway on the south side of town on the east side of the tracks, a neat and cheap approach and good for Colorado State University. We started up Mason Street at yes, 10:27 a.m., and I chose a vestibule to differ from Longmont.

As we proceeded up Mason St., "Dan the Chaser Man" was right with us, and wound up below the Dutch door I was in when he had to slow for a red light, and then got trapped behind a motorist ahead waiting for us to pass so he could turn left. Some of the passengers spoke with this "Dan" at, I think, Gillette, Wyo. He's a Denver resident -- that's a Broncos (NfL) sticker on his SUV -- retired, and he followed us faithfully, apparently shooting both stills and videos pretty much constantly, from the Texas Panhandle to Minot, or at least into western North Dakota. We marveled at his perseverance. Turns out he had two dogs, in car cages, in the back of his SUV, which otherwise had stuff piled on seats for a total seating capacity of one -- him, the driver. And we think we Mileage Collectors are abnormal! Hmmm. Talk about miles and miles of look-alike photos and videos!

North of Fort Collins, I was ready to shoot at the big Budweiser brewery, but this shot of its plant switcher (or one of them) is not real sharp, sorry.

Coming into Cheyenne a UP mainline freight was stopped, possibly to change crews, but an apparent 4-unit mid-train DPU, one unit still a "patched" SP, was within camera range. Time here: two minutes after noon. Visible is the dome on the Wyoming capitol, Cheyenne being the fourth state capital of our odyssey (after Illinois, Arkansas, and Colorado), with one more, St. Paul, to come. The overall view of the yard has the roundhouse, with the "heritage collection" inside and apparently two rotary plows outside, visible.

We pulled around the curve into the old C&S Cheyenne yard and stopped by the yard office at 12:10. The local engines are 1978/1656. The second part of Day 6 coverage is in a separate file.

 
 

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