Along the Joint Line 1

Here is a set of locomotives that are often seen south of Denver doing switching duties at various industries. It's an interesting set because the three are quite different looking with three different heritages. This photo was taken on August 23, 2006.


The Rio Grande engine is a GP40-2 with 3000 horsepower. It has been renumbered via a patch to Union Pacific 1348. It used to have Rio Grande number 3126 and was built in 1974.

The Cotton Belt engine has also been patched by Union Pacific to number 1526. This engine was originally built as a GP40 in 1967. It had a series of owners and numbers beginning with Louisville and Nashville 3024, then Seaboard 6820, then CSX 6820. Then Cotton Belt got it and numbered it 7291. It was rebuilt in 1991 into what the railroad calls a GP40-2M. It has 3000 horsepower.

The Union Pacific 1924 engine is a GP60 that was built in 1988 as Cotton Belt 9622. It used to look a lot like the Cotton Belt engine in the photo. It spent about a year as Union Pacific 5724 before getting the number shown here. GP60's have 3800 horsepower.