For a year-and-a-half after Union Pacific closed Colorado’s Tennessee Pass as a through route on August 23, 1997, it still operated a one-a-week local from Pueblo to Malta, near Leadville, on a round trip that took two days. On January 9, 1998, Rio Grande GP40 No. 3075 and Cotton Belt GP40-2 No. 7291 leads the five-car local along the Arkansas River at Parkdale, Colorado, and is about to enter the Royal Gorge.
