Nearly 109 miles south of Denver Union Station, the Colorado State Fair Express passes the famous triple-signals at Bragdon. Bragdon is where track warrants end and CTC starts (for trains headed south). The special is staying on Main 1 which is BNSF owned and dispatched. The next track over is the Bragdon siding, also owned by BNSF. The last track to the right crosses trains over between Main 1 and Main 2.
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It was an unusually hazy day in the Colorado Springs area the morning of the Colorado State Fair special. UP 844 has the train well in hand just south of Crews. Pikes Peak is just barely visible in the distance above UP 844. The northbound main is visible in the lower-right corner of the image.
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At Crews, the Colorado State Fair special left the single track mainline behind and again hit Main 1 for the duration of the trip to Pueblo. The double track started just to the north in this shot.
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I took many photos of UP 844 on the Colorado State Fair special, but this one turned out to be my favorite shot. It is around 10am and the train is just about to pass underneath the road to the north entrance to the Air Force Academy.
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Just north of the Academy siding, the Colorado State Fair special is heading down the 1% grade. The train received preferential treatment by both UP dispatchers and BNSF dispatchers for the trip to Pueblo. There were no delays on the single track main between Palmer Lake and Crews.
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At Greenland, UP 844 has the Colorado State Fair passenger special well in hand, UP 1989 idling and enjoying the ride. There had been some question as to whether the special would run on Main 1 or Main 2 between Littleton and Palmer Lake. The train ultimately took Main 1, as seen here.
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UP 844 steams south, its smoke partially obscuring the Denver skyline in the background. The passenger train is headed for Pueblo for the Colorado State Fair. To the left of the train (to the right in the picture) is Main 2, Main 3, and two Light Rail tracks.
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At the Evans Street overpass in Englewood, UP 844 is putting on quite a show! The train has a clear signal down Main 1 through the CTC as well as a warrant to continue south on Main 1 to Palmer Lake.
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In the foreground, a BNSF manifest heads south on Main One at MP 0.0 on the Pikes Peak Subdivision. In the distance, UP's South Local waits for its turn to head south on the Joint Line to perform its thrice-weekly switching. The strange obstruction at the top of the picture in the HOV ramp from I-25 to Union Station.
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UP's South Local sits patiently waiting on UP's Main track leading from Prospect Junction to 20th Street. The local is staring down a red signal (where ownership of the track also switches from UP to BNSF) as the Brush Sub dispatcher has already cleared a BNSF manifest to come out of 31st Street and head south.
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A string of nine units awaits for BNSF's Brush Line dispatcher to a clear a route back toward North Yard. The nine units are on UP's Burnham Lead, and hostlers are taking the units back to North Yard (via the Joint Line and 20th Street) as they are ready to be placed into service.
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In honor of Norfolk Southern's paint scheme, I thought this picture should be in black and white! Two NS units on an "earthworm" train - a unit covered hopper train - enters the LoDo siding for temporary storage. The train is passing one of the many building that has popped up in LoDo in the last few years.
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A roster shot of UP 1989 in some nice afternoon light as it leads the MPUNY-25 north through South Denver. The elevated platform behind 1989 carries the Regional Transportation District's (RTD's) Light Rail line south to Littleton.
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Running rather late, the northbound MPUNY-25 is moving north on Main 2 past Evans Avenue. The train left Pueblo (about 110 miles south) the night before and barely made it past Colorado Springs before the crew died. The train was tied down on Monument siding until today when a new crew took the train north into Denver.
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It is one of a kind! BNSF's so-called "Vomit Bonnet" was a test paint scheme applied only to BNSF 9647 shortly after the merger. This was a test paint scheme that mixed the colors from BN's "green and cream" scheme along with the pattern of Santa Fe's Warbonnet scheme. Rather amazing that, ten years ago, the unit is still roaming the rails!
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