Several firefighters spray water, pumped through these special tank cars, on hot spots from a brush fire that started alongside the tracks. The train is actually making a slow reverse move here, making multiple applications to the hotspots.
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Did you know that BNSF actually has a firefighting train that is based in Denver? I've seen it many, many times, sitting at the yard in Denver. However, this is the first time I've actually seen it in action! A few small brush fires along Main 1 south of Littleton.
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This is a spot that I have thought about shooting at, but I never got around to it until today! Love the wall of trees that this southbound unit coal train is passing as it cuts into the 1.2% grade. Uncountable thousands of coal trains have passed this way since the Powder River Basin really started mining in the mid-to-late 1980s.
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A southbound coal load parallels I-25 just north of Larkspur. Main 1 sticks pretty close to I-25 from Castle Rock to the I-25 exit for Larkspur. There, the highway continues over the ridge to Greenland, while the tracks cut through Larkspur, keeping the grade to roughly 1.2%.
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Cresting the top the Palmer Divide at Palmer Lake, BNSF 6574 heads south on the single track main. Numerous people are enjoying the warm day, taking paddle boards out onto Palmer Lake itself.
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As this southbound manifest approaches Palmer Lake on Main 1, take not of the abandoned track to the right. Back in the days of cabooses and manned helpers on coal trains, the manned helpers would sometimes be cut in ahead of the caboose. In those situations, the helpers would cut off the train and enter this track, leaving the caboose on Main 1 for the coal train to back up to, connect to, and continue south.
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Three GEs lead this southbound manifest on Main 1, just north of Palmer Lake. The train has a clear (green) signal and is ready to head onto the single main track between Palmer Lake at Crews.
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Although there are a few other cars on this Denver-Amarillo manifest, most of the train is composed of alternating strings of tank cars and covered hoppers. The train has a clear (green) signal at the top of the hill at Palmer Lake to continue south onto the single main track.
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A pair of SD70ACes lead an empty oil train on Main 2 at Greenland. The mountain peak furthest off in the distance toward the left, is Pikes Peak. One of the 53 mountain peaks in Colorado that exceed 14,000-feet (4,268-meters) in elevation.
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This oil empty received a diverging clear (red over green) signal at Palmer Lake and is continuing north on Main 2. If you look very closely, you might notice a grass-covered filled to the left of the train. That is part of the north leg of a wye that once existed on Main 2, decades ago.
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There's not that many originally-painted Heritage units left on BNSF's roster. BNSF 1100 is one such example. This C44-9W was one of the first units delivered to BNSF after the BN/ATSF merger in 1995.
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Love this view of the open fields surrounding the Joint Line between Greenland and Palmer Lake. Two units sit on Main 1, leading a manifest southbound.
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BNSF's Denver to Amarillo works its way through "The Sag" on Main 1, about two miles north of Palmer Lake. There is an oil train sitting on the single track just south of Palmer Lake, getting ready to proceed north on Main 2. This manifest will wait here until it gets a light to proceed south on the single track main.
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A northbound empty oil train is stopped, looking at a double red signal at Palmer Lake. The train is getting a track warrant from the Union Pacific dispatcher to head north on Main 2.
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This southbound manifest slowly snakes its way through the curves just north of Sedalia on Main 1. The manifest has a single DPU on the end of the train, not quite in sight in the distance.
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