Tucumcari, New Mexico

Here is yet another train station. This time, it's the large Rock Island / Southern Pacific depot in Tucumcari, New Mexico.



According to this page, this station is the only original Spanish architecture Train Depot in New Mexico.

Antonito, Colorado Depot

Here is the Rio Grande station in Antonito, Colorado in 1986. It was built in 1882 and is still there today. The building is 124 years old!



I don't know why it was boarded up at the time. The building otherwise appears to be in good shape. The semaphore signal is especially interesting.

Antonito is the end of the narrow gauge line called the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic which was once part of the Rio Grande as well. The C&TS does not use this station, however. They have a newer one a bit south of this old gem.

Here are some interesting photos of this same station of other sites:

Evidence of third rail to accommodate the narrow gauge.

Photos of various vintages.

Las Vegas - New Mexico, That Is

I have run out of Texas railroad depot photos so I will now move elsewhere. This is the station in Las Vegas, New Mexico which is just down I25 about 111 miles from Raton. Amtrak's Southwest Chief stops here at 12:38 pm westbound and 3:45 pm eastbound. This train runs from Chicago to Los Angeles on the route of the Santa Fe's famed Super Chief.

Train Station in Denton, Texas

Here is yet another train station in Texas, this time in Denton. This is the Texas-Pacific station taken in 1986.



Train stations vary in architecture quite a bit but they also often seem to have some common things about them such as the overhang you see in the picture. They almost always have the name of the town on both ends of the building as well.

Yet Another Waxahachie Railroad Station

Now, this train station is the neatest of the three Waxahachie train stations I have put on this blog. It was built by the Trinity and Brazos Valley Railroad.



There is another station much like it in Corsicana, Texas. See it here.

The T&BV after a bankruptcy, became the Burlington-Rock Island Railroad. It was jointly owned by the Burlington and the Chicago Rock Island & Pacific. Later it was part of the Fort Worth and Denver. Today, it is part of the BNSF Railway.

Another Train Station in Waxahachie

I am pretty sure that this train station is in Waxahachie, Texas. I do not know which railroad owned it.

A Train Station in Waxahachie, Texas

This is one of the train stations I found in Waxahachie back in 1985. It belonged to the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad.

Sherman, Texas

This little depot is really neat. It's in Sherman, Texas. I am not sure which railroad owned it and I doubt if the building is still there. This photo was taken in 1985 and you can see that it is not in very good shape.

Brownwood, Texas Railroad Station

This train station is very large for a town the size of Brownwood. According to this web site, the station served 15 trains a day in its heyday. It was built by the Santa Fe in 1909 and the last passenger train to use it ran in 1968.

Train Station in Bonham, Texas

This is another Texas-Pacific train station, this time in Bonham, Texas. This picture, like the TP station in Paris below were taken in 1985. Both the Paris station and this one are on the same line that ran across Texas not too far from the Oklahoma state line. This one is obviously quite a bit larger than the one in Paris.

Another Station in Paris, Texas

This is the Texas-Pacific train station in Paris, Texas. It is much less interesting looking than the Frisco station in the same town (see below). But, this is what makes train stations interesting. Some are plain, others quite elaborate.

Paris, Texas Train Station

I think this old Frisco train station was quite attractive in 1985 when I took the picture.

It is still there as this link can attest. Scoll down a ways.

San Francisco Zephyr

When Amtrak was formed, their train that ran between Chicago and the San Francisco area was called the San Francisco Zephyr rather than the California Zephyr as today. The original pre-Amtrak California Zephyr ran on the CB&Q from Chicago-Denver, the D&RGW from Denver-Utah and then on WP to California. When Amtrak was formed, the D&RGW did not join so the Amtrak train did not use their rails. Instead the train went through Wyoming on UP and it used SP from Utah to California. This was in 1971.

In 1983, D&RGW finally joined Amtrak and they moved the train to D&RGW rails so that passengers could enjoy the more scenic although slower route. And they renamed the train back to the California Zephyr even though it still ran on SP out west.

Here is a picture of the SF Zephyr in 1981 passing through the Belmont station in Downers Grove, Illinois. I like this picture because of the lighting and the presence of the passenger platform between the rails. It has since been removed. The F40PH up front sports the original Amtrak paint scheme for these locomotives. It is known as Phase I. The second loco is also an F40PH but has the Phase 2 paint scheme - the stripes are different.

Passenger yard completed - sortof

The passenger yard has been completed. It has 4 tracks spaced apart 2.5 inches to allow for easy handling. I am not making use yet of the track closest to the abyss (a drop to the floor). There is no barrier between this track and certain doom for the little HO sized people inhabiting the passenger cars.

I had in mind creating a wall along there using cheap 1" by 36" pieced of wood - better known as yardsticks. I even bought a bunch of them and painted them (rendering them useless as yardsticks). But I have decided that I don't like this idea. Instead, I am going to buy a bunch of girders by Atlas to form a wall with them. These plastic girders will each be held in place by 4 small screws so it will take a while to drill and insert about 100 of them. But I think it will look better. I have used this technique elsewhere on the layout.

I bought one package of girders last time I was at Caboose Hobbies, their last one on the shelf. I need 6 more packages of 4 to complete the wall.

Work Has Begun

After much consideration, work has begin on the expansion of my passenger train yard from 2 to 4 tracks. Right now, what a mess! Sawdust everywhere, tools everywhere, loose track everywhere, cork, screws (not corkscrews), stray pieces of wood, etc., etc.

What is One To Do?

What is one to do when the model railroad layout is basically finished? Well, in truth, there is no such thing as a finished model railroad layout. At least this is true for the one who builds the layout. My current layout might be considered finished by some people but there is always more that can be done. Such things can be small or large. Maybe add some people; maybe add some scale size trash; build a fence; add some more trees; add more lights to buildings; on and on, really.

While more light in buildings would be a good thing, that is not what I have in mind. You see, I have a fondness for passenger trains. I have these:

Santa Fe - an 11 car San Francisco Chief
C&NW - a 4 car commuter train
C&NW - a 5 car streamliner (needs a diner)
C&NW - a 10 car heavyweight train
GN - a 3 car Empire Builder (adding a new car each month until 10 cars)
Amtrak - an 11 car Superliner

There are also some older ones that are "retired" because they are from older and now inferior models:

UP - 12 car "City" train (actually 18 cars at one time!)
Santa Fe - 10 car Grand Canyon Limited
CB&Q/D&RGW/WP - 11 car California Zephyr
Santa Fe - 10 car Super Chief

The layout isn't nearly big enough to have all these trains on it so some of them rest peacefully in their boxes.

What I am thinking about is to have someplace to park them where they can be seen as if in a large passenger station. This would also enable me to trade off trains periodically without having to box or unbox them.

But, how will I do it - that is the question.

Yet Another Load of Coal on the Joint Line

That Union Pacific train I wrote about in my previous posting had 6 locomotives each with 4400 horsepower for a total of 26,400. This is the typical configuration for UP coal trains going south on the Joint Line south of Denver.

Today, I got a nice photo of a southbound BNSF coal train in the exact same place as the UP train - the far south end of the dam at Chatfield State Park. BNSF has a different approach to coal train motive power for the Joint Line. They typically place two locomotives up from and 2 at the end of the train pushing.



This train had this configuration:

At the front of the train:
9954 - SD70MAC built in 1998
9514 - SD70MAC built in 1995

At the rear of the train:
9613 - SD70MAC built in 1995
9331 - SD70ACe built in 2006

The last one, the SD70ACe, is quite new. My picture of it did not turn out well so here is a link to a nice clean one.

The SD70MACs have 4000 horsepower and the SD70ACe has 4300. So this train had a total of 16,300 horsepower - quite a bit less than what UP uses for similar trains.

Notice that these two engines do not have the same paint scheme. The 9514 is one of the earlier SD70MACs that Burlington Northern acquired before its merger with the Santa Fe. The paint scheme was called the "Executive Scheme" because BN had an executive passenger train and the special engines that pulled it were painted similarly to these SD70MACs. Here is a picture of one of those at the Illinois Railway Museum.

The 9954 is a newer SD70MAC. It has one of the "heritage" schemes that BNSF came up with. It combines colors from some of the predecessor railroads such as Santa Fe and Great Northern.

Another Load of Coal Going South

Here is a nice coal train heading south on the joint line just west of Highlands Ranch. It is a Union Pacific train led by UP 6007. This load of coal most likely originated in northwestern Colorado or it could have come from Wyoming.

At the front of the train were similar engines but different models:
6007 - AC44CCTE built in 2003
6485 - AC4400CW built in 2000

In the middle of the train was:
6882 - AC4400CW built in 1995
5939 - AC44CCTE built in 2003
6414 - AC4400CW built in 1995 - ex SP 368

At the end of the train was:
6582 - AC4400CW built in 1997

Union Pacific has about 520 AC44CCTEs and about 850 AC4400CWs. UPs most common model is the SD70M - with over 1400 of them.

Here is the 6007:

Celebrity Engines

The Union Pacific Railroad has painted 6 locomotives in special paint schemes to honor some of the railroads the UP has gobbled up over the past 25 years or so. I saw my first one in person today. It is UP 1989 painted to honor the Denver and Rio Grande Western whose track runs between Denver and Pueblo as part of the joint line. It runs about a mile from my home and this is where I saw the 1989 today as the 4th unit of 4 on a northbound train.

The set of locomotives are all model SD70ACe built in 2005 and 2006. They are:

UP 1982 - for the Missouri Pacific
UP 1983 - for the Western Pacific
UP 1988 - for the Missouri - Kansas - Texas
UP 1989 - for the Denver and Rio Grande Western
UP 1995 - for the Chicago and North Western
UP 1996 - for the Southern Pacific

You can see pictures of them here.

Let me know which one you like best.

I would like to see one commemorating the Union Pacific itself.

A Couple of Train Sightings

While on my bike ride in Chatfield State Park today, I rode the length of the dam. As I began my traversal of the dam, I saw a stopped northbound empty coal train and wondered if it would block my route at the other end of the dam. As I rode on, the train began to move. However, there was another train right behind it and not all that far behind it. I always thought it was unusual to see two trains on the same track so close together. The first northbound train was another of the many BNSF coal trains that utilize the Joint Line. The train behind it turned out to be rather unusual. It was just 7 engines – five SD70MACs and a couple of AC4400CWs.

While all this was going by, a loaded southbound coal train came along on the other track. It consisted mostly of brand new CEFX coal hoppers. The build dates on them were 09-2006. Here is a picture of one.



One of the trailing locomotives was a fairly new SD70Ace:



I really like this picture showing most of the train.



All these photos were taken at the southernmost end of the Chatfield dam.