Fires Cripple Two of Colorado's Scenic Railroads

Fires in two separate locations are causing major disruptions during the summer. The Royal Gorge Route has canceled trains due to a wildfire in Parkdale. More significant is the disruption caused by a fire at Lobato for the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic.

Coal Creek Canyon Bridge Knocked Out Of Service A Second Time

If you've ever had the feeling you were on a streak of bad luck, you and the bridge over Colorado Highway 72 at Coal Creek Canyon might have something in common. Last December, a significant derailment dropped hopper cars like toys all over the bridge and both approaches, closing the highway. Monday, May 17th, was a bit different, but it had a similar impact, with delayed motorists, re-routed freight and a Cal-Z sent through Wyoming.

MBTA Sues Denver Based Tie Manufacturer

Boston, Massachusetts' MBTA is suing Denver-based Rocla Concrete Tie Inc. for an estimated $91 Million tie replacement project after the previous ties sold to them as 50 year ties with a 15 year warranty apparently now lie crumbling beneath the MBTAs Old Colony line, which leaves Boston's city center and follows a SE direction to Plymouth.

Rock Slide Causes Amtrak Service Disruption

Here's the answer to a question I know that everyone was anxious to know. The question is "Is it really possible to drive a P42 engine backward?

The answer is, if you have a conductor to spot you, sure!

Amtrak P42 #67 pulls the California Zephyr consist while running backward through Arvada, Colorado, on May 15, 2010.

6th Avenue Bridge Rollout Completed Early

6th Avenue light rail bridge rolls into place. 9News photo

The 6th Avenue Bridge Rollout has finished early. Originally scheduled for 30 hours, work was completed in 14 hours, less than half the time expected. As a result, traffic resumed it's normal flow today instead of tomorrow. Denver's 9News.com has photos of the rollout as well as video coverage.

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.

Fastracks West Corridor 6th Ave Bridge Roll Out Next Weekend

UPDATE 4/23/2010 5:00 PM: POSTPONED ONE WEEK. Due to weather, RTD has postponed the roll-out by one week.

The RTD FasTracks West Corridor team will roll out the main span of a double-track light rail bridge across 6th Avenue just east of Simms & Union the weekend of April 23rd through April 25th, 2010. All lanes of 6th Avenue between Simms & Union and Kipling Street will close at 8:00 p.m. on Friday, April 23rd to prepare the area for the roll-out, scheduled to begin early Saturday morning. 6th Avenue and the frontage road will re-open by 5:30 a.m. Monday, April 26th.

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.

With No TIGER, SL&RG Weighs Its Options

It was a pleasure to read a letter to the Alamosa Valley Courier today regarding the San Luis & Rio Grande. A doting grandmother who lives in the San Luis Valley recounted her trip with her grandchildren on the Rio Grande Scenic Railroad from last fall. I too have taken that trip, and like her, I am worried that the SL&RG's denial of TIGER funds will prevent the valley from prospering.

Amtrak: CZ Denver To Chicago Run Canceled Friday

Important Information

The information below was based on facts available in 2010. For updated information on Amtrak train status, the first site to check is always www.amtrak.com. - S.Walden 2015-FEB-17


Amtrak's California Zephyr, the only Amtrak train serving the state has canceled Friday's eastbound run from Denver to Chicago because of the snow.

From the National Association of Railroad Passengers:

The California Zephyr due to arrive Chicago yesterday afternoon got there at 17 hours 56 minutes late, at 9:26 this morning. The Zephyr due to arrive Chicago today terminated in Denver yesterday. Yesterday’s departure from Chicago did not operate Chicago-Denver but the train departed Denver west this morning.

Similarly, freight service on BNSF (route of the CZ) and  Union Pacific, has been disrupted. From the AP:

Burlington Northern Santa Fe said the cold weather and snow was causing its freight trains to be delayed between 24 and 72 hours in Colorado, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, Minnesota, Montana and North and South Dakota.

There is no word whether service for Saturday is canceled.

More Info: Amtrak Suspends Chicago-Denver Train Due To Snow

Train Strikes Private Bus In Colorado Springs

According to KKTV 11 News, a private tour bus belonging to the Canadian rap group Swollen Members was smashed by an oncoming freight train last night as it was stuck on the tracks.

McFadyen Suggests Tennessee Pass Be Re-opened

It's hard for anyone to take a name like Buffie McFadyen seriously, but since she's a State Representative, Colorado Governor Bill Ritter had to take her seriously when she asked him to pressure Union Pacific to reopen the Tennessee Pass line.

More Derailment Photos

As reported last week, there was a bit of spectacular derailment on the Moffat line right over Colorado Highway 72, dropping a hopper onto the roadway below and spilling several cars down the embankment toward the CDOT depot.

Derailment in Glenwood Canyon Closes Line For More Than a Day

A thirty-car derailment in Glenwood Canyon forced the UP to close its D&RGW mainline through Colorado for more than a day while crews repaired damaged track and righted cars, from Wednesday night to Friday morning. More than 1,200 feet of track needed replacing after a handbrake was left engaged on one of the cars. The car jumped and derailed, remaining upright, which could not be said for all of the cars behind it in the 103 car, 5 locomotive train. The Grand Junction Sentinel has the story.

Pile Driver OB Demonstration At CRRM

According to C&TS, we will have the opportunity to see Pile Driver OB in action the next two weekends at the Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden. On Saturday October 10 & 11 and again October 17 & 18, there will be demonstrations on the museum grounds. The Colorado Railroad Museum opens at 9:00am and the demonstrations will be held at 10:00am, 12:30pm and 3:00pm all four days.

San Luis & Rio Grande Files For TIGER Grant

According to the Valley Courier, rails in the San Luis Valley may see some freight sailing along at speeds up to 60 MPH. If the San Luis & Rio Grande Railroad and its parent company, Iowa Pacific Holdings, LLC, receive a TIGER grant for $80 Million, it would direct some of the ballyhooed stimulus money into the SLV economy. The catch is that everyone is gunning for the funds aimed at transportation, which is "only $1.5 Billion," says CDOT commissioner Steve Parker.

A map of the San Luis & Rio Grande, from their website

How Does A Cog Railroad Work?

Visitors looking to do something to do along Colorado's Front Range don't have to look very far to find anything. Yet there is something that is uniquely Colorado right in the middle of the Front Range. Long before there was a state called Colorado, or even a Denver City, people knew of a mountain far into the Kansas Territory called Pike's Peak. The cry of the 1859 Gold Rush was, "Pike's Peak or Bust!"

Today, Pikes Peak presides over the 2nd largest city in the state, Colorado Springs. Like the settlers of 150 years ago, it is the first landmark that people from the east look for in their trek westward across the plains. Early visitors could hike to the top, and later a burro train would carry folks to the top. In 1889, Zalmon Simmons (as in Simmons mattresses) started the Manitou and Pikes Peak Railway. Using a Abt rack system to climb the mountain in a fraction of the time and distance it would take a regular adhesion locomotive and cars, the railroad first began carrying passengers to the top in 1891. The cog railway saved so much time it was possible for any tourist to make the excursion to the top a day trip, turning it into the first-rate tourism attraction it is today.

Maintaining and operating a rack system makes for some interesting workings, interesting enough for Trains Magazine to use their fledgling TrainsTube service to show their subscribers and the world how the Cog Wheel Route actually works, starting with a view from between the rails at how the cog mates with the track. The video also shows one of the most curious workings: how the switching works when you have a rack in the middle that must synch up with the teeth that it connects to. It's worth the time to take a look at this Swiss and American technology that continues to prosper on Pikes Peak 120 years later.

Great Western Trestle Fire Ruled Arson

Great Western, the short line on the northern Front Range that served the Great Western sugar plant, suffered a serious blow to its infrastructure when a trestle crossing the Cache la Poudre River northwest of Greeley caught fire the morning of February 9th. The fire was reported by an employee of Noble Energy. OmniTrax, which manages the short line, says it will be seven weeks before materials to repair the trestle arrive. The source of the fire, which started in some weeds next to the trestle and spread from there, is now believed to be arson because all non-human sources have been ruled out. A full beer bottle and a half-empty (half-full?) whiskey bottle were found nearby.


View Larger Map

The loss of the trestle has effectively severed the line from Greeley to Windsor. OmniTrax is working with area clients to find alternative shipping until repairs are complete, currently estimated to be in late March or early April. Damages are estimated at $1 million. Anyone with information about the fire should call the Union Colony Fire Department at 970-350-9500.

Young Father Collapses, Dies While Clearing Moffat Road

Union Pacific lost a very well-loved employee this last week when Kevin McCoy of Yampa, Colorado, died of an undiagnosed heart defect. McCoy was working to clear a rock slide from the line near Toponas on the Craig branch of the Moffat Road when he collapsed with heart failure. A celebration of his life will be tomorrow (Saturday, January 31) at 1 p.m. at the McCoy School in McCoy, Colorado. Kevin, who would have been 26 on Sunday, leaves behind a wife and 18 month-old son, as well as an unborn baby due this September.

My prayers are with his family. May God bring peace in this terrible time of heartache.

DBJ: Future Denver Union Station May Squeeze Existing Services

When RTD purchased Denver Union Station as part of the FasTracks plan, it seemed a natural fit. RTD would be using DUS as a central hub for its Light Rail and Commuter Rail routes for the entire Denver metropolitan area. Without RTD, the future of DUS was at best uncertain. The facility was constructed when passenger rail was the main method of intercity travel. As the glory days of passenger rail faded, so did the glory of the station. The schedule of the Rio Grande Zephyr and later Amtrak's California Zephyr couldn't generate the funds needed for upkeep on a cavernous waiting room, underground concourse, and network of tracks.

Now, with the ownership of Denver Union Station comes the rights of RTD to make changes. According to the Denver Business Journal, Amtrak has expressed its concerns to Congress and the private rail excursion companies have their own needs to look after as RTD plans the 4 year overhaul of the downtown terminal. What passenger rail traffic flows through Denver is directly related to RTD's plans.

If Amtrak does not get adequate space and placement at the station for the California Zephyr and the proposed Pioneer service from Denver to the Pacific Northwest, could Amtrak passengers possibly be greeted to Denver by an Amhut like the one in Provo, Utah, a featureless platform with a generic shelter that offers no ticket office hours, no Quik-Trak hours, no checked baggage hours, and no help with baggage?

As the DBJ article also points out, what of Denver's love story with the Rio Grande Ski Train? RTD feels a "social obligation" to it, but that's different than a contractual obligation. Where do the skis, poles, boots and people go if the platforms are spoken for by the local commuter train to Brighton? Putting more cars on I-70/US 40 to Winter Park is not an option.

There's also the future of high speed rail service along I-70 at least to Eagle-Vail and probably to Grand Junction and even Steamboat Springs and Craig. Skiers spending 8 hours--eight!--in a car for a day on the slopes is poisoning the future of ski tourism in Colorado. The Rocky Mountain Rail Authority continues to champion what remains a vital link to Colorado's future within the I-70 corridor. The RMRA is also exploring the possibility of regional service between Denver, Colorado Springs, Pueblo, Walsenberg, Raton and beyond, along with Ft. Collins, and Cheyenne, all along the Front Range. With the axes of both routes crossing in Denver, accounting for such an expansion is imperitive. Most notably, Denver Union Station must have a functional southern entry and egress for regional trains to access the I-25 route. The snake-like light rail shoe-horned onto Denver's street grid would never fit a train designed for intercity service, much less high speed rail.

Finally, space has always been available for private car excursions to park their plush, often historic passenger equipment for extended stays in Denver. If RTD hangs out the No Vacancy sign, how likely is the business and tourism that result from such extended stays?

RTD serves Denver, but the Regional Transporation District needs to be thinking regional on a much larger scale than just the capital city and its suburbs. Denver prospers so long as the region prospers. Building national and regional facilities to meet the growing demand benefits RTD's tax base and will keep Denver on track in the next 50 years.