Minutes out of Rio Grande’s North Yard, Rock Island GP35 315 leads a collection of second-generation EMD and GE units on train 82 at Brighton Boulevard on Denver’s Belt Line, headed for the UP at Sandown Junction. The two-year-old unit still wears the Rock Island shield on its nose, but the Rock, perennially unable to settle on a paint scheme, has also mixed in solid maroon units, units with striped noses, and even, further back, the new yellow and red livery. Since 1951, the Belt Line, which swings around the northern edge of the city, has given Rock Island entrance and egress at Rio Grande’s North Yards, home of its Denver freight operations.
