chased Southern Pacific in 1988, and the combined entity was sold to Union Pacif- ic in 1996. The Burlington Northern ab- sorbed the Colorado & Southern in 1981, then merged with the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe in 1996 to create BNSF.
The Littleton Depression
Since the 1970s, concern had been growing over the many long Joint Line trains passing through Littleton, block- ing fire and ambulance emergency vehi- cles at the town’s only two grade cross- ings. The solution was a one-mile-long concrete lined “depression” to lower the rails under the roads. The project was started in 1981, and by 1987 trains were no longer blocking traffic. And since 1994, the C and D lines of the Den- ver Regional Transportation District’s electrified light rail system share the depression, paralleling the Joint Line tracks south from Denver.
Palmer Lake The grade south from Littleton rang-
es from 0.975 percent to 1.55 percent to take trains the almost 2000-foot rise in elevation from “Mile High” Denver (5280 feet above sea level) to the Palm- er Divide at Palmer Lake (MP 52.0 and 7237 feet), named after General Palmer. Northbound trains out of Pueblo at 4692 feet elevation climb a little over 2500
Colorado Springs - Pueblo
South of Palmer Lake, trains travel through Monument, Colo., where, if you are following the line south, you will need to get back on I-25 to drive on down to the Colorado Springs area. The sin- gle track (with several sidings) is out of sight of the interstate through here until it crosses over to the east side of I-25 at
feet up to Palmer Lake, but on a longer and slightly gentler grade in the 1.0 to 1.1 percent range until a final rise to 1.4 percent before cresting at Palmer. This crest of the grade at Palmer
Lake, where the twin lines south of Den- ver come together into a single track, is probably the best location on the Joint Line to photograph both north- and southbound trains. This bottleneck can create traffic backups, and at times a line of southbound trains can be seen stopped on Track 1 between Larkspur and Palmer Lake, waiting for a “parade” of northbounds to enter Track 2 at Palm- er Lake. Waiting southbound merchandise freights may pull to a stop at the block signals in Palmer Lake. But the much heavier loaded coal trains will wait in the “sag” in the grade at the block signal about 1.5 miles north of Palmer Lake, to make restarting easier for the final climb up to Palmer Lake.
the northern edge of “the Springs” (as Colorado Springs locals like to call their town, although there are other Colorado towns with “Springs” in their name). It is not uncommon to see northbound trains waiting on the 3.9 mile long siding beside I-25 in the Springs for southbounds en- tering the single track at Palmer Lake.
On to Texas At Pueblo Junction in Pueblo, coal
loads leave the corridor and split off east on the Pueblo Sub to La Junta, Colo., into the Boise City Sub south into Tex- as. Returning empties from Texas use the Twin Peaks and Spanish Peaks Subs back into Pueblo then north via the cor- ridor back to the mines.
Railfanning the Corridor Scanner frequencies include 160.920
on the Northport Sub into Sterling, along with 161.100 for the Sterling operator. From Sterling into Denver 161.100 is also used by the Brush dispatcher. Two road channels used for the Joint Line are 160.920 (UP dispatchers) and 160.650 (BNSF dispatchers). Trains switch to 161.100 at Englewood, and may use 160.695 to talk to the Denver yard. All along much of the corridor, the
photo possibilities are almost endless, and too numerous to detail here, but there are plenty of good locations visible
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