I must have been locked out? But i never knew anything about the DRGW and Rock Island sharing a yard in Denver. Is there anyone who can share any information what so ever? I'm very interested in learning about this! http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=70837&nseq=26&favsearch=1
I don't believe they shared a yard, but the Rock connected with the DRGW at Colorado Springs and on UP track northwest from Limon, CO to Denver. I am guessing that the sign is for the western terminus of the Rocky Mountain Rocket passenger train that ran between Chicago and Denver over the UP track, and also had a section that split off at Limon and ran to Colorado Springs. Todd
Quite a picture. How things have changed. Not only the locos, But the cars in the parking lot as well.
D&RGW handled Rock trains from the east, such as the ultra-hot Ford FAST, until the dilapidated Rock lost the contract with the Milpitas plant, and routing switched to Pueblo/Tennessee Pass via Mopac. Seems normal for a pre-1980's photo to have Rock power in it. As for the sign, I'll leave that up to the experts.
Yes they 'shared' a yard. D&RGW North Yard was the terminus for any CRIP freights into Denver, they tied up, maintained and left again on the industrial "Belt Line" (crossed S Platte River) which was also the RI/ UP running rights ROW on the Limon sub. Jim Eager defined it on the DRGW Yahoo list in 2006 as: Belt Line oddity The Belt Line does not appear in any D&RGW employee timetable (or none that I can find anyway), other than in sections 6 and 6a in the Special Rules pages of the Colorado Div and System ETTs, titled "Operation Belt Line." Kind of odd for a CTC-equipped stretch of track, but then it was not used by any regular Rio Grande trains, only local switch jobs and transfers. However, it was used by regular CRI&P trains and the trackage does appear in the Rock Island ETTs, although not under the name Belt Line. It's just listed as the 2.7 miles between Belt and North Yard Denver in the Des Moines Div ETT, with the note: Trains between Belt and Denver North yard will be governed by D&RGW RR Timetable and operating rules. I also can not find the track diagrams for the Belt Line in any of the usual on-line resources. -- A follow up post by Chuck Conway stated: "I was looking at LeMassena's RG book for info on the Northwestern Terminal (p 247) and noted that the Grande did not absorb the line until 1969. Just speculating but that might be why there is so little info on the segment. It doesn't show up in the line profile either, whereas the much less utilized Ft.Logan line is. Curious indeed. As far as operations, it was done mostly by the dispatcher authorizing engines by radio to operate a segment or lock themselves in at Wash Park, PSC or the stockyards. The NY yardmaster would also update them via radio on whatever was needed. Up until '82, I think there were only two power switches the ds controlled-at PSC and Belt Jct. The UP Jct. switch was operational in early '82.The UP crews called the DS for permission just like the Grande crews did. Don't remember what the Rock did but it was probably the same." regards dave cheers dave
