Train 82, the morning freight east from Denver, is just starting its trek across the high plains at Mesa, behind year-old U25b 213. Today, this scene is all suburban sprawl, but on Feb. 3, 1965, Union Pacific’s Kansas line, where the Rock enjoyed trackage rights, pretty much had the landscape to itself. With the gleaming summit of 14,265-foot Mt. Evans and the entire Front Range in the background, it’s easy to see why so many railroads, like Rock Island, arrived in Denver from the east and why so few continued west.
