Photo ID: 110163 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, January 21, 2024 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed The Sag Douglas County, CO 161 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Colorado Springs (UP)/Pikes Peak (BNSF) BNSF After getting a fresh crew, a southbound BNSF intermodal train is starting to pull south through the Sag and toward Palmer Lake on Main 1. Meanwhile, a northbound BNSF manifest from Slaton, TX rolls by on Main 2. The manifest is headed for Denver, where it will terminate. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 110162 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, January 21, 2024 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed The Sag Douglas County, CO 119 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Colorado Springs (UP)/Pikes Peak (BNSF) BNSF A southbound BNSF intermodal train is stopped on Main 1 (and is getting a crew change) as a Slaton, TX to Denver, CO manifest heads north on Main 2. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 110161 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, January 21, 2024 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed The Sag Douglas County, CO 129 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Colorado Springs (UP)/Pikes Peak (BNSF) BNSF A southbound BNSF baretable train snakes its way through The Sag, just north of Palmer Lake. All of the trailer and containers you see on the train - FedEx, JB Hunt, Amazon Prime, etc - are empty. They are being repositioned from Denver, CO to San Bernardino, CA. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 110160 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, January 21, 2024 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed The Sag Douglas County, CO 113 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Colorado Springs (UP)/Pikes Peak (BNSF) BNSF A southbound BNSF intermodal train wraps its way through "The Sag", just north of Palmer Lake. Here, ownership of Main 1 changes from BNSF to UP as you travel southbound. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 109917 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, December 17, 2023 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed The Sag Douglas County, CO 137 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Colorado Springs (UP)/Pikes Peak (BNSF) BNSF Just north of Palmer Lake is a location now known as "The Sag". Over 100 years ago, Santa Fe's mainline crossed over Rio Grande's mainline right here. You can clearly see the abutment from the bridge that has long since been removed. When the Joint Line was formed, the tracks of the Grande the Santa Fe were connected in places where the mainlines previously crossed each other. Here, the ownership of the track changes right here from BNSF to UP as the train moves south. Regardless of ownership, BNSF dispatches the track, which has been CTC for the past few years. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 109641 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, October 15, 2023 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed The Sag Douglas County, CO 176 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Colorado Springs (UP)/Pikes Peak (BNSF) BNSF The head end of BNSF 9015 is descending down "The Sag" just north of Palmer Lake. On warm summer days when the traction motors on units are really hot, southbound coal loads will sometimes stop here at The Sag to allow the traction motors to cool before continuing south. On this October afternoon, the temperature is around 60°F, so the train will continue rolling south to Palmer Lake. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 109640 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, October 15, 2023 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed The Sag Douglas County, CO 338 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Colorado Springs (UP)/Pikes Peak (BNSF) BNSF Prior to World War 1, when Rio Grande and Santa Fe operated their own mains separate from one another, there were several places where the two lines crossed one another. Few places are as apparent of this old artifact as at "The Sag" just north of Palmer Lake. Here, Santa Fe's main crossed over Rio Grande's main. The abutments of the bridge are still quite apparent, even though the bridge itself has been gone for over a century. with the creation of the joint line, the crossover were removed and the tracks of each railroad were connected to create the Joint Line. Here, the head end of this coal train is now on track owned by UP and the back end of the train is still on track owned by BNSF. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108391 Date Shot Photo By Sunday, July 19, 2020 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed The Sag Douglas County, CO 793 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Colorado Springs (UP)/Pikes Peak (BNSF) BNSF As UP 8837 comes up to "The Sag" on Main 1, it passes by BNSF's protection unit. BNSF only has four units on their coal trains there here, set up 2x0x2. That is the bare minimum for a 120-car coal train going over Palmer Divide. In the event that one of the four units fails, BNSF keeps this unit here for easy retrieval to rescue any such stalled coal load. Before they started keeping a unit here, they had to call one out of Denver, or steal one off of another train. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108055 Date Shot Photo By Saturday, May 23, 2020 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed The Sag Spruce, CO 826 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Colorado Springs (UP)/Pikes Peak (BNSF) BNSF The valley leading to Palmer Lake looks fantastic and green as the end of May is approaching. Amidst the spring foliage is a southbound coal load, resting in the sag on Main 1, and a covered hopper grain train heading north on Main 2. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 108051 Date Shot Photo By Saturday, May 23, 2020 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed The Sag Spruce, CO 890 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Colorado Springs (UP)/Pikes Peak (BNSF) BNSF BNSF 9233 is making its way through "the sag" on Main 1 a few miles north of Palmer Lake. Over 100 years ago, tracks of competing railroads (Rio Grande and Santa Fe) crossed here. Specifically, Santa Fe crossed over Rio Grande. You can still clearly see the embankment from the old bridge. In World War 1, the US government took over the railroads and ordered Rio Grande and Santa Fe to connect their respective tracks and run the Joint Line as directional, with southbounds on Main 1 and northbounds on Main 2. A tradition that is largely still the case, although Main 1 now is CTC between Littleton and Palmer Lake. Main 2 still operates using Track Warrants and ABS. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 105380 Date Shot Photo By Tuesday, July 21, 2015 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed The Sag (MP 50) Palmer Lake, CO 1773 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Colorado Springs (UP)/Pikes Peak (BNSF) BNSF Hard to believe that it has now been ten years since BNSF changed its name from "Burlington Northern Santa Fe" to simply "BNSF" and introduced the "New Image" scheme. In that same time period, a new GE model caught wild fire with BNSF management. That model, seen here on the point of this southbound manifest, is the ES44C4. As of this photo, it is unique to BNSF. The center axle on both trucks is not powered, making this an A1A-A1A unit. BNSF first started testing this model toward the beginning of 2009. Six year later, they have over 1,100 on the roster! Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 105379 Date Shot Photo By Tuesday, July 21, 2015 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed The Sag (MP 50) Palmer Lake, CO 2015 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Colorado Springs (UP)/Pikes Peak (BNSF) BNSF A major summer thunderstorm passed through the area about an hour earlier. You can see the dark clouds now moving off to the east as a southbound BNSF manifest pulls through "The Sag" on Main 1, about two miles north of Palmer Lake. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 105378 Date Shot Photo By Tuesday, July 21, 2015 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed The Sag (MP 50) Palmer Lake, CO 2220 (1 Comment Posted) Subdivision Railroad Colorado Springs (UP)/Pikes Peak (BNSF) BNSF This southbound BNSF manifest is just starting to pull south from "The Sag", about two miles north of Palmer Lake. While some coal trains stop here to cool off their traction motors after the climb from Denver, that was not the case with this train. No trains ran through Colorado Springs on this day due to a large maintenance window. This southbound had actually been tied down here for much of the day. The new crew is now on and is starting the pull toward Palmer Lake. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 104634 Date Shot Photo By Saturday, March 8, 2014 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed The Sag Spruce, CO 2007 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Colorado Springs (UP)/Pikes Peak (BNSF) BNSF This location, just north of Palmer Lake at Spruce, is where the Santa Fe once crossed over the Rio Grande. During World War 1, when the Federal Government took over the railroads, it was decided it would be more efficient to "combine" the two railroad lines into direction tracks between Denver and Pueblo. The crossovers were all removed and the two competing lines connection. The arrangement remains today as this BNSF coal empty crosses from BNSF-owned rails to UP-owned rails on Main 2. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 101003 Date Shot Photo By Saturday, October 7, 2006 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed The Sag (N of Palmer Lake) Larkspur, CO 1684 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Colorado Springs (UP)/Pikes Peak (BNSF) BNSF This 64 car manifest is on the final approach to the top of the hill at Palmer Lake. The second generation power makes this picture appear as though it could have been taken twenty years ago - save for the paint schemes, of course. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture.

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