Railroad Radio in Colorado

If you've never listened to Railroad Radio, you've missed an opportunity to learn all about how freight moves in Colorado. It takes a bit of patience and knowledge of the nature of railroad operations, but, having it on in the background, you'd be surprised what you can pick up.

It's also a good indicator, given how expensive gas is recently, of how busy these rail routes are on a given day. Careful listening will help you know where the trains are, and how likely a photo run will produce good results.

All three live audio feeds are linked below and in the near column.

Railroad Radio in Colorado

• BNSF Front Range Sub - Denver to Cheyenne
• BNSF/UP Joint Line - Denver to Pueblo
• UP Moffat Line - Winter Park to Tabernash

 

Officer Special On the Joint Line

Prolific videographer Carlos Ferran, whose channel on YouTube, trainsruleandroll, is a shrine to all things Rio Grande, has yet another video (HD) that I can't pass up without passing along. He's got a good eye for railroad photography, and he keeps his finger on the pulse of the Joint Line.




I'll conclude this post by explaining what an officer special is and what the Joint Line is.

Trains Magazine Features Colorado's Distributed Power

I got my October issue of Trains on Saturday. Did you?

Trains Sept 2010

The September 2010 issue of Trains Magazine features diesel engines using distributed power in Colorado. The cover  boasts, "Ultimate Motive Power, 6 Locomotives [under] 1 Engineer, How distributed power changed the way railroads run big trains." The main article by David Lustig features a double page spread of the Moffat Route through Little Gore Canyon to start the article, another from the Front Range sub north of Palmer Lake, and yet another from the west of Denver above the Big Ten Curve west of Clay, Colorado, which is also where the cover was shot (see at left).

Ft. Carson Plans To Expand Rail Capacity Starting This Fall

The United States Army Corps of Engineers is planning an expansion of the Ft. Carson rail yard. Ft. Carson is a large army post southwest of Colorado Springs. In the 1940s, Camp Carson--named for explorer and soldier Gen. Kit Carson--was started to raise Army troops for combat in World War II. Around the time nearby Camp Hale near Leadville was closed, Camp Carson became Ft. Carson.

Palmer Lake Meets Set For May

For those near the Front Range, a small, semi-regular gathering of railfans reconvenes at their usual spot, a small parking lot in north Palmer Lake (see map). The meet is as egalitarian and informal as possible, with no meals or facilities provided. Someone usually brings a scanner that picks up what trains are in the area.


View Larger Map

UP To Repair Curves, Replace Ties On Joint Line

Union Pacific announced that they would be replacing more than a mile of rail on curves on the Joint Line between near Castle Rock and Colorado Springs. The curves project should start at the end of July and end in mid-August. UP also said that they are replacing more than 15,000 railroad ties between Spruce and Monument and should complete the work by April 19th.

Highball, Westbound Photo Turn CRB001 Track One

Climb aboard, brakeman! We're going on a run for the latest Colorado railroad photos out there on the web. Put your grip beneath your seat, click the Read More link, and we'll get moving!

Would You Like Some History With Your Coffee?

Picture this: You're out railfanning on the joint line south of Denver--solid choice for February--and you get this craving for coffee, or at least your hands are cold and need to hold something warm. Rather than hit the nearest Starbucks or McDonalds, I have the perfect stop, and it's truly a stop worth making.

C-470 Flyover For Southwest Light Rail Extension

It's always been on RTD's to-do list to extend the Southwest light rail extension, currently running from Broadway and Mississippi to Santa Fe and Mineral. Exactly how far and where has been a question ever since they built the original extension in 1999. Now we know.

The main expense will be a flyover taking the light rail line over all 4-6 lanes of C-470 onto the south side of the highway. This would be a separate flyover from the CDOT-planned flyover running the same way from southbound Santa Fe to eastbound C-470, eliminating a nasty left-hand turn that has run at capacity or over capacity ever since the interchange was constructed. The CDOT flyover would go over the highway, over/under the BNSF/UP Joint Line bridges and under the RTD flyover.

All this lacing with concrete will work to eat up the funds of FasTracks, which already is in trouble because of the lost revenues because of the financial depression. Nevermind that one of the two planned stations isn't accounted for in the FasTracks plan. This is not good.

Despite the cost, RTD and Denver need this extension. It will relieve the pressure at the Mineral station, which is currently the southern terminus. Additionally, it will establish a direct link with C-470 at one/two interchanges, which will lure commuters coming in from Ken Caryl, Kipling, and Wadsworth from the west. Finally, it links the Highlands Ranch neighborhood directly to the Light Rail system, which should be a deep mine for RTD to draw from for decades to come. Sometimes a tree only needs to cross a few inches of clay to reach the aquifer for explosive growth. If RTD can cross the belt highway, they may do the same thing.

More on Kevin Flynn's Inside Lane

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:

• 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
  

Related:

• CR: RMRA Presents I-70 & I-25 Options To DRCOG Today
  
• CR: Times and Seasons In the I-70 Corridor
  
• Rocky Mountain Rail Authority

Please note that this is indirectly related to the R2C2 efforts by CDOT because it involves part of the same regional railroad structure. This is also not directly related to the Ports-To-Plains DOT Studies.

R2C2 Public Benefits And Cost Study Results

The Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) released the results of a Rail Relocation for Colorado Communities (R2C2) study on Tuesday, February 10th. The Public Benefits and Cost Study examined the cost and benefits of building a bypass routing through freight trains along the eastern plains of Colorado away from the Front Range cities of Pueblo, Colorado Springs, Denver and Ft. Collins. Such a move would leave local freight service to the cities intact while freeing up capacity for some type of commuter rail service.

The study concluded that while the project may cost between $1.0 and $1.5 Billion, the direct and indirect benefits would work out to between $2.4 and $16.3 Billion. The most likely scenario approximates the cost to be $1.2 Billion and the benefits to be $5.2 Billion, a benefits to cost ratio of 4.3 : 1. $3.8 Billion of those benefits would go to the public. While this isn't stellar, the jobs this project would create would have a positive impact on Colorado's economy, which is facing a major recession at best.

Union Pacific and BNSF, the state's competing Class I railroads, would partner with CDOT to build the new rail route, connecting Brush with Las Animas over 220 route miles. No official route has been announced. That will likely come after the RMRA issues its report on I-70 & I-25 high speed rail options.

Molten Sulfur Tank Train Derails in Littleton Friday

Ed: Forgive the high number of posts yesterday and today. A lot of railroad news has happened lately, most of it noteworthy.

Kevin Morgan of Colorado Railfan.com captured pictures of the clean-up of a tanker train derailment in Littleton (AP story) that happened late Friday night, the 16th. According to Kevin,

BNSF's Bonneville, WY to Galveston, TX molten sulfur train (the GBNVGAT) derailed about 24 hours ago. The train runs down BNSF's Front Range Subdivision and then down the Joint Line. The derailment occurred in the "Littleton Trench" around midnight. The trench was dug in the late 1980's so the town of Littleton would no longer have to deal with grade crossings. Denver's Light Rail also uses the trench for its tracks. ... The derailment damaged the retaining wall separating the lines. It disrupted the roadbed beneath the northbound track for Light Rail and even dumped some debris on the track. Not sure how long it'll take before Light Rail will re-open.

Thanks to Kevin for the great pictures! AP couldn't do any better!

New Amtrak Funds To Explore More Service From Denver

The Amtrak improvement bill (Railroad Safety Enhancement Act of 2008) signed into law this week by President Bush contains instructions for Amtrak to look for additional service options out of Denver Union Station. This is a tremendous boost for commuter service options, even if it doesn't result in corridor service via Amtrak like Chicago's Illinois Service. It could simply bring back the long-dead Pioneer service from Denver to Seattle, expanding rail service for residents of the northern Rocky Mountain states currently served by only the Empire Builder. If it does, mandated improvements to trackage would serve Amtrak and any other commuter service that starts up over the same route.

More details will emerge in the future, but also in the bill is $18 Million to build an underground rail transit safety test center at the Pueblo DOT railroad facility. The text specifically says,

There are authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary $18,000,000 for the period encompassing fiscal years 2008 through 2011 to design, develop, and construct the Facility for Underground Rail Station and Tunnel at the Transportation Technology Center in Pueblo, Colorado. The facility shall be used to test and evaluate the vulnerabilities of above-ground and underground rail tunnels to prevent accidents and incidents in such tunnels, to mitigate and remediate the consequences of any such accidents or incidents, and to provide a realistic scenario for training emergency responders.

This is a minor boon for Pueblo, especially in light of the financial meltdown currently taking hold on Wall Street.

I'm going to keep searching this legislation to see what else made it, but this is a great help to the Rocky Mountain Rail Authority.

New Round of R2C2 Open Houses

All the way back in May, the Colorado Department of Transportation (known locally here as CDOT) had a initial batch of open houses to present the idea of creating a new rail line between Las Animas (the largest town between Lamar and La Junta on US 50 in the south and either Wiggins or Brush on I-76 (US 6 & 34) in the north. Bofh of the proposed routes would cross through Limon on I-70.

The idea is to pass the through freight over this route from and to the UP and BNSF corridors and keep only local freight to the existing rails. This would create the capacity for commuter rail service along the Front Range as far as Cheyenne or Laramie, WY and Raton or Santa Fe, NM, where it would possibly meet the New Mexico Rail Runner (or whatever it is called at the time).

As with most government agencies, the progress is extremely slow. They are having a second round of community meetings next month, which is fully five months after the first round. Here are the dates and locations, as announced.

• Limon - October 7 @ Limon Community Center
  477 D Avenue, Limon
  
• Colorado Springs - October 8 @ Pikes Peak Area Council of Governments
  14 S. Chestnut Street, Colorado Springs
  
• Las Animas - October 9 @ Las Animas Elementary School
  530 Poplar Avenue, Las Animas
  
• Brush - October 14 @ Morgan County Fairgrounds, ‘Old’ 4-H Exhibit Hall
  750 Ellsworth Street, Brush
  
• Pueblo - October 23* @ Pueblo City Hall
  City Hall Pl, Pueblo
  

* - Date has been changed and updated

Opinion

It's difficult to imagine that commuter rail will ever become a reality at this rate. Public discussion and village politics are not the way to get things like this done. Rail is the most efficient means of transportation, yet in the days of $4 for a gallon of gas, commuter rail is only being taken half-seriously. It's past time to lay rail, and we're getting people only to think about what commuter service would mean to Colorado.

Cheyenne Frontier Days Special Train Tops Summer Weekend In Colorado

This is just a reminder to everyone about the activities tomorrow. Any time you're looking for updated information on Colorado railroads, be sure to drop by the Special Events Calendar.

First, we have the Cheyenne Frontier Days Special Train run by Union Pacific between Denver and Cheyenne. The train runs again tomorrow. While the tickets have been sold out, there's likely to be a spot or two open on the photo line. This will be the last scheduled run of UP steam on the Front Range this year, seeing that the 2008 State Fair Express is already canceled.

Second is the Colorado Railroad Museum's 4th annual Wine & Cheese Train. An historic narrow gauge passenger train powered by a steam or diesel locomotive will run at approximately 20-minute intervals between 10 am. and 4 p.m. on the museum grounds.

Third and last is the Colorado Wildflower Special on the Leadville, Colorado & Southern. The train is scheduled to leave the station at 10:00 a.m. The tickets run $40.00.

Have fun this weekend, and don't forget to check the weather!
--------
Chris May's Photos of the Cheyenne Frontier Days Special

News Article On CDOT Relocation Study

The Colorado Springs Gazette weighs in on CDOT's option to relocate the current Front Range rails.

Pueblo Chieftain Editorial On CDOT Study

The Pueblo Chieftain weighs in on CDOT's announced R2C2 study.

Larkspur Residents Now Support Grade Separation

A long-standing, summer tradition along the Front Range is the Rennaisance Festival in Larkspur. Almost as long-standing is the tendency for traffic jams to lock up the town's main intersection on festival weekends, especially when a string of freights tie up the grade crossing just west of the intersection on Perry Park Ave, the only direct road to the festival from I-25.

View Larger Map

If, and this is a big if, Larkspur succeeds in building the underpass, the Rennaisance Festival will likely double in size and surrounding businesses should plan their expansions now. The main reason, however, is still the best reason: A grade separation will allow fire and ambulance services to reach victims much faster, anytime. Separation of the grades will improve response times, improving the chances of survival for those living west of the crossing.

The likelihood of the separating the grade will improve as state and county leaders climb onboard. Union Pacific and BNSF will likely get on board about the same time. The festival organizers have been pushing for it for years, last year suing BNSF over a train that blocked the crossing for nearly an hour and turned away many would-be attendees. The organizers later dropped the suit, but still contended that something needed to be done. Something like a grade separation.
source

C-DOT Plans Second Study Of Eastern Rail Corridor

The Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) is planning a study called Rail Relocation for Colorado’s Communities or R2C2. This idea has been rolling around for at least a dozen years in its current form. Essentially, CDOT believes there is an untapped commuter rail market along Colorado's Front Range or what is also called the Colorado Piedmont between Ft. Collins and Pueblo. They would know because they count the axles on their own freeways. In order to have commuter rail, however, the steadily increasing flow of coal and other rail freight needs to be relocated. That's where R2C2 comes in.

The study will be to determine the alignment the rails would travel, how to best complete the bureaucratic red tape that would surround such a project, and how to put together a public-private partnership. That last goal confirms my observation about project management that every project needs one or two "gimme" objectives to be able to claim success. It appears that this project is coming closer to a definite reality.

Here's hoping that 2018 will see a passenger embark in New York and never stop riding the rails until they get to Chama, New Mexico. After that much traveling, though, all I'd be looking for would be a bed!

2008 State Fair Express Canceled

Union Pacific has canceled the Colorado State Fair Express for 2008. This was supposed to be the second year of the special run from Denver to Pueblo. However, organizers have found too many conflicts arising between equipment used for the two political conventions in Denver and St. Paul and the special. Something had to give and the State Fair special took lower priority.

Last year's event drew hundreds of railfans and even casual observers to the tracks to watch a steam engine show it's heels as it swept over the rare mileage. Our chase ended at the Pueblo depot, surrounded by hundreds of other railfans and interested visitors. It was a beautiful sight. Main line steam is truly exciting. One can only hope 2009 sees it's return.

Follow up, 1:20 PM: Pueblo isn't exactly happy.