by Frank Keller/photos by the author
I grew up in Southern California for my fi rst 30 years, and while a fan of the local railroads, I was a bigger fan of the “Action Road,” Denver, Rio Grande & Western. While I saw plenty of Rio Grande units in SoCal and had made plenty of trips to Rio Grande country, when a job opportunity in Colorado Springs came my way in 1993, I jumped at the chance to move to the Centennial State.
I arrived in Colorado Springs in February 1993 and knew right away I was going to like my change of scenery. While out looking for houses with my realtor, I encountered a southbound coal train with four of Rio Grande’s ubiquitous tunnel motors. Seemed like I was off to a good start, as this was after the purchase of Southern Pacific and was during the time when Rio Grande’s power was either being repainted into SP colors or was in other locations on SP’s vast system, rather than Rio Grande’s home rails.
ABOVE: Rio Grande GP60 3154, one of only three on the D&RGW roster, winds its way out of Tunnel 1 and into Coal Creek Canyon along the Front Range of the Colorado Rockies. It is June 2000 and this was the summer version of the Ski Train, chartered to Winter Park for a jazz concert.
It didn’t take me long to realize that any evidence of the Rio Grande would soon disappear, made even more evident by the merger with Union Pacific on September 11, 1996. As a general rule, UP wasted little time in making its presence known, and if SP’s system was vast, then Union Pacific was even more far-flung. With this in mind, I made the decision to photograph as much of the Rio Grande as I could while still possible.
I concentrated on operations but photographed anything Grande-related, and I became quite a collector of Grande artifacts. Fortunately, this interim time period lasted a lot longer than I expected. It is my hope to share with readers some of my successes as well as a few of my regrets.
ABOVE: Three Rio Grande GP40-2s lead the South Local south along the well-known and well-photographed Colorado Joint Line at Sedalia. Santa Fe and Burlington Northern ran numerous freights on this line, which at one time was one of the busiest mains in North America.
Unlike today, where the internet has a wealth of railroad information for anyone willing to spend some time searching for it, 1993, as I recall, was the time of dial-up internet, and services like Onelist covered various topics of interest for like-minded individuals. One such list was dedicated to the Rio Grande, and within said list, posts were shared among the faithful as to where one could find any operating Rio Grande units. I used this list to search out possible locations, trains, stations, and whatever remnants I could find so that I could add to my photographic collection. Along the way I learned a lot about the Rio Grande. More importantly, I formed many new friendships with fans as well as employees who had the same love of the Rio Grande that I did. One such individual was a young man named David Blazejewski. Through Onelist, he mentioned that he and his dad (from Rhode Island no less) would soon be visiting Colorado to seek out what remained of the Rio Grande. I offered to share what I knew and the rest, as they say, is history. David and I soon became great friends and remain so to this day.
Before moving to Colorado, I had visited the Rio Grande numerous times and had a fair number of shots. However, I was inter-ested in finding the remaining Rio Grande units — especially as it had been noted in the railfan press that with the Grande’s purchase of SP, Rio Grande units would be repainted in scarlet and gray, as there were far fewer of them to repaint. The search was on. In all of my visits, I had little opportunity to photograph the Craig Branch, so I started there, especially because I heard that Rio Grande units were still being used on various coal trains on the branch.
ABOVE: Seven units have just passed the west end of Kyune as they dig into the climb to Soldier Summit in June 1989.
It wasn’t until June 1993 that I had made my first Craig Branch visit since moving to Colorado. I had a three-day weekend and planned to drive from my house in Colorado Springs to Craig and return. It was an eventful three days as I captured a couple of solid Rio Grande trains. The first was a loaded coal train led by SD50 5505 at Sidney. I followed this train back to Phippsburg, where it would stop to re-crew. I turned around and continued my journey to Craig. I am glad I did, as while I was after Rio Grande units, I received an even bigger surprise as I neared Craig. I saw a loaded coal train rolling off the Axial Spur but had missed the head-end power as the tracks and the road were separated a bit. I turned around and headed back east, and when I caught up to the train I saw the big surprise — this train was powered not by Rio Grande units but by three EMD SD70M demonstrator units along with a dynamometer car!
I followed this train to “P-burg,” where it changed crews and I continued my chase to Bond before calling it a day. I assume that had the Rio Grande stayed independent, perhaps we would have seen some of these units in the black/gold of the Rio Grande — after all there were 25 purchased and painted for SP with Rio Grande-style speed lettering. These units were delivered between June and August 1994, a couple of years before the UP merger…