Here's a photo I took April 17, 1983, FORTY-ONE YEARS AGO, of an eastbound D&RGW coal train with MoPac pool power a little east of Wolcott, CO on the now-out-of-service Tennessee Pass line.

My long-time fiend David Busse and I ventured to Colorado for two weeks to document some of the last runs of the Rio Grande Zephyr and, as you can see here, we also checked out operations on the Tennessee Pass line and the Craig Branch. David is now retired, but in 1983 he was heavily involved in the TV news business. One of the best memories I have of this trip was us managing to commandeer a television news helicopter from another TV station to chase the RGZ for several miles. The helicopter, pilot and reporter were also there to do a story on the train's last run. I have to say this was the only time I've chased a train with a helicopter and it's highly addictive.

At first glance, this looks like a Missouri Pacific train, but there was certainly no scenery like this in MoPac territory. I heard MoPac ordered these units with D&RGW specifications because they knew they'd be spending a lot of time on the Rio Grande.

It's probably safe to assume this train originated at one of the coal mines located east of Delta, CO on a branch running south out of Grand Junction. While the Craig Branch generated a lot of coal business, almost all of that traffic was routed to Denver via Winter Park. I don't imagine a coal train off the Craig Branch was routed via Dotsero and Salida, but stranger things have happened.

Dave and I took photos of this train as it was about to pass under Interstate 70. Fortunately, there were no state troopers nearby who would take exception to where we temporarily parked our vehicle.

Thanks to GOOGLE Streetview images, I've also included a photo of what the same area looks like today.

Here's another photo I earlier posted of this same train:

[www.altamontpress.com]


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