The Joint Line
With the ex-Santa Fe southbound main shut down for bridge work, BNSF L-PWR076, the Pikes Peak Local, was routed onto the ex-Rio Grande northbound main on its return trip from Kelker seen here taking the crossover at North Bragdon to get back on BNSF rails. It was not only a rare opportunity to shoot a well-lit southbound passing the searchlights on the ex-Rio Grande main but also a rare opportunity to shoot a rebuilt ex-CB&Q GP30 still in BN Whiteface livery on the Joint Line. Our cards could not have played out better.
A brief history of the Joint Line: the Rio Grande built this line between Denver and Pueblo in the 1870s followed by the Santa Fe in the mid-1880s. During World War I, the U.S. government forced the two railroads to operate their lines as a jointly owned double-track rail corridor, an arrangement that has lasted into the present day. A third railroad, the Denver and New Orleans (later the Colorado and Southern) built its own line between Denver and Pueblo in the mid-1880s just slightly east of here, but the C&S ultimately opted for trackage rights over the Santa Fe instead. The C&S mostly abandoned its line by the onset of World War II.
The Joint Line
With the ex-Santa Fe southbound main shut down for bridge work, BNSF L-PWR076, the Pikes Peak Local, was routed onto the ex-Rio Grande northbound main on its return trip from Kelker seen here taking the crossover at North Bragdon to get back on BNSF rails. It was not only a rare opportunity to shoot a well-lit southbound passing the searchlights on the ex-Rio Grande main but also a rare opportunity to shoot a rebuilt ex-CB&Q GP30 still in BN Whiteface livery on the Joint Line. Our cards could not have played out better.
A brief history of the Joint Line: the Rio Grande built this line between Denver and Pueblo in the 1870s followed by the Santa Fe in the mid-1880s. During World War I, the U.S. government forced the two railroads to operate their lines as a jointly owned double-track rail corridor, an arrangement that has lasted into the present day. A third railroad, the Denver and New Orleans (later the Colorado and Southern) built its own line between Denver and Pueblo in the mid-1880s just slightly east of here, but the C&S ultimately opted for trackage rights over the Santa Fe instead. The C&S mostly abandoned its line by the onset of World War II.