DENVER — A Colorado legislative committee has advanced a bill to help fund passenger rail and transportation projects. By an 8-3 vote, the state House Transportation, Housing & Local Government committee passed SB24-184, which will assess a fee on rental cars to help pay for the development of projects including the Front Range (Fort Collins-Pueblo) […]
Eight Santa Fe and Burlington Northern engines power a Santa Fe freight on the Rio Grande-owned northbound Joint Line track at Castle Rock, Colo., in 1973. Mel Patrick photo […]
DENVER — A bill that includes provisions to protect rail lines for Colorado’s proposed Denver-Craig rail service, even if coal traffic drops below sustainable levels, has cleared its first step in the state Senate. SB24-190, sponsored by Sen. Dylan Roberts (D-Frisco), also enhances the ability of the state to sell the Moffat Tunnel, which it […]
DENVER — Colorado legislation limiting train lengths and requiring wayside detectors, among other provisions, has passed the state’s House of Representatives and been introduced in the Senate. HB24-1030 is sponsored in the House by state Rep. Javier Mabrey (D-Denver) and in the Senate by Sens. Lisa Cutter (D-Lakewood) and Tony Exum (D-Colorado Springs.). As passed […]
The Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad has faced numerous challenges in the last few years, the results of which have attributed to the end of using coal to fire their steam locomotive fleet. Following a major fire near the railroad, the D&S fast-tracked a program to convert their steam engines to burn oil. A […]
Modelers David Popp, Brian Schmidt, and Bryson Sleppy continue the scenery process on their T-TRAK modules by adding gravel, ground foam, and static grass in an attempt to make them look more like the prairies of Colorado. T-TRAK is a modular N scale railroading system that uses foot-wide boxes plugged together to build tabletop layouts. […]
Railroad places to visit 1. GOAT LICK TRESTLE: Fast-paced action of BNSF’s northern transcon and the beauty of Glacier National Park, plus live GN goats. 2. CAJON PASS: Busy mainline mountain crossing for both BNSF and Union Pacific leaving LA. 3. TEHACHAPI: Mind-boggling over-and-under loop in Southern California sees more than 40 trains a day. […]
DENVER — The Regional Transportation District will temporarily cut light rail service to one train per hour on some lines as of May 26, the Denver Post reports, saying the reduced frequencies are necessary to address maintenance that has been deferred, but risking abandonment for cars by riders who have that option. Many of the […]
Having taken on coal and water, Rio Grande 4-8-2 No. 1505 is eastbound at Orestod, Colo., with a freight from Grand Junction in the 1940s. G. L. Campbell photo […]
DURANGO, Colo. — The final chapter of the long history of coal-powered trains on the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad came Saturday, March 23, with a round-trip excursion between Durango and Cascade, Colo., handled by a Baldwin Class K-36 2-8-2 No. 481. The locomotive will now be converted to oil firing, completing conversion of […]
PUEBLO, Colo. — Stadler Rail’s hydrogen powered multiple-unit passenger trainset has set a record by traveling more than 1,700 miles without refueling or recharging. The FLIRT H2 trainset, destined for use on the San Bernardino County Transportation Authority’s Arrow service, covered 1,741.7 miles on the test loop at the Transportation Technology Center in Pueblo. The […]
Rio Grande train 10, the Yampa Valley, threads through Union Pacific’s 20th Street Yard at right and the Burlington’s coach yard at left to arrive at Denver Union Station in early 1965. The Yampa Valley was a daytime coach-and-mail train running to Craig, Colo. George H. Drury photo […]
