A little over seven hours after leaving Denver with Rio Grande train 9, the Yampa Valley, PA-1 6003 points its nose into the setting sun at Craig on Colorado’s Western Slope. On March 5,1966, t... (more)

Just in from the east, Extra 3949 eases through the Cheyenne yards past construction of a new yard tower. A high-railer paces the train on the adjoining track. Soon, a Big Boy will take over for t... (more)

Rushing eastward across the Chihuahuan Desert near Van Horn, Texas, May 13, 1973, Missouri Pacific GP35 615 is 120 miles out of El Paso and still some 350 miles from its Fort Worth terminal. Techn... (more)

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, U... (more)

Promptly at 3:30 p.m, August 10, 1966. Union Pacific E9A 955 eases the City of Denver out of Denver Union Station to begin its 1,048-mile dash to Chicago. Waiting in the background, CB&Q’s Denve... (more)

On the last day of 1966, Burlington’s Longmont local out of Denver trundles along north of Broomfield, as faithful and reliable as an old dog. Led by SD9s 326 and 363, cars for cement loading, p... (more)

The dwarf signal tells us that we are alongside Kansas City Terminal Railway tracks at Union Station, where nameless Train 15, formerly the Kansas City Rocket, is just rolling in from Minneapolis-... (more)

A little past 1 p.m. on a perfect May Day, 1965, the Rocky Mountain Rocket turns its back on the Rockies and heads east out of Denver behind two 2250-hp E8As. Though there are only five cars in th... (more)

A New Mexico thunderstorm builds in the background as refrigerator cars of California produce, freshly iced, await a crew change on July 28, 1967 at Belen, New Mexico. Led by the 818, two hefty Al... (more)

By July 6, 1964, NdeM 8, El Fronterizo, is a train most Yankees can only dream of, a seemingly endless string of primea and secunda-class coaches, lightweight and heavyweight Pullmans, full diner,... (more)

The presence of a company photographer, officials, and other supernumeraries tells us this is no ordinary train parked at Tenneco north of Denver. In mid-June, 1965, UP has dispatched a special fr... (more)

In no particular hurry, Santa Fe’s 81 rambles along the Joint Line north of Castle Rock with La Junta-Denver train 28. Beneath the E8 carbody is a bit of diesel history: The 81 began life in 193... (more)

In 1967, Chicago Burlington & Quincy‘s 114-mile Alliance to Sterling line is not at all what it will become in just a few years, when the flood of coal from the Powder River Basin starts moving ... (more)

Back in the early 1970s Missouri Pacific acquired 35 3000-hp U30C’s for service in the southern Illinois coal fields and worked them hard, giving them little attention and less maintenance. On ... (more)

Coming down the original Sherman Hill main, Gas Turbine Electric (GTEL) 21 rolls the last miles toward Cheyenne. On the day after Christmas, 1965, UP’s motive power department has already made u... (more)