The profile is classic USRA but that fat stack says Union Pacific. Some 625 light 2-8-2’s were turned out for American railroads under control of the United States Railroad Administration during... (more)

Galloping home early in the afternoon at Rocky siding, Rio Grande number 10, the Craig-Denver Yampa Valley, is 35 minutes from a 3:20 arrival at Union Station. Three coaches and a baggage car behi... (more)

Catastrophic floods across the High Plains have shredded Union Pacific’s Kansas Pacific line, sweeping away miles of track and leaving not a single bridge intact between Denver and Limon. And so... (more)

The fall sugar beet “campaign” draws Colorado railfans to the UP, the Burlington, Colorado & Southern and the Great Western. Few think of the Rock Island, but on November 6, 1965, a westbound ... (more)

One third of the Union Pacific’s roster of Alco Century 855’s, number 61, is on the move westbound, having topped off its 4,000-gallon fuel tank at North Platte. On October 2, 1966, the 5,500-... (more)

Mid-mornings, Burlington’s 23rd Street engine terminal in Denver gets busy. Freight power is in from the east and has to be fueled and serviced, and passenger power must be made ready for the va... (more)

Northbound on the Joint Line near Louviers, Fort Worth & Denver 752D heads a Colorado & Southern freight for Denver on July 8, 1967. The practice of sandwiching one or two SD9s between paired AB F... (more)

Early morning at National Railways of Mexico’s Huehuetoca yards, the road’s handsome 4-8-4s are on the move, roundhouse to the “patio” to pick up their trains. On July 4, 1964, steam is de... (more)

You had to stand at trackside to get the full effect: Union Pacific’s final class of turbines, the 8500-hp Class 23 and 24 Big Blows, were BIG, almost 166 feet long overall, 16 feet tall. And lo... (more)

This was the engine of my youth, CB&Q’s handsome O-5 Class Northern, which I watched from my grandmother’s backyard in Denver’s Globeville section. And just about the time I thought I would... (more)

History passed this way: Near tiny Romeroville, New Mexico, where wagon trains bound for Santa Fe once made their way, Santa Fe Train 23, the Grand Canyon, on July 27, 1967 begins the climb to Glo... (more)

The timetable allots ten minutes for train 23, Santa Fe’s westbound Grand Canyon, to make its Raton station stop, more than enough for the few passengers waiting to board or disembark. Somewher... (more)

Grinding up the .82 percent to Hermosa Tunnel and the 8014-foot summit of Sherman Hill in late September, 1965, Union Pacific 418 leads a motive power consist that could be assembled on no other ... (more)

On a bright but very cold February 20, 1969, GP7 2811 rolls the (almost) daily local out of Santa Fe, headed down the 18-mile branch to a connection with the main line at Lamy. In 1880, the AT&SF ... (more)

Coming and going at Cheyenne’s west end, outbound 8500-hp GE turbine 15 encounters an arriving extra behind GP35 749, two DD35Bs and a DD35A, a 17,500-hp combination. Union Pacific likes to do t... (more)