On August 21, 1991, 34 years ago, Santa Fe B23-7 6406 leads westbound trailers up the grade of the Caprock escarpment between the sidings of Buenos and Southland in rattlesnake country of West Texas. This is the Texas mainline connecting Galveston/Houston/Dallas with the Transcon at Clovis, New Mexico. The train has just left rugged ranching and oil country and will top out in a few minutes in very flat farm and oil country. Photo by Joe McMillan.

Tags:   ATSF 3751 Santa Fe

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Today is January 20, 2025, Martin Luther King Day and presidential inauguration day. In Arvada, Colorado, about ten miles northwest of Denver, it's -1º F as Amtrak Train 1105, the westbound Winter Park Express, whips up snow as it passes through the city. About six inches have fallen over the area in the past few days as a large Arctic cold mass has enveloped the country. Amtrak motors 75 and 146 power the seven-car train on its two-hour journey to the Winter Park Resort.

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My last photo of 2024 is of the Golden Switcher locomotives 1660 and 1984 tied up at the yard office in Golden, Colorado. The switcher serves various industries in Golden and Arvada on the Golden Subdivision. BN green units are still running around after a quarter-century of BNSF operation. December 31, 2024.

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The Anschutz Winter Park Ski Train stopped running in 2009. Later that year, Ed Ellis' San Luis & Rio Grande was poised to run its own ski train for the 2009-2010 season, but an agreement with Amtrak and others could not be worked out, so it never happened. In anticipation of that event, however, SL&RG brought in two newly painted diesels to Denver's Union Station, where they sat for a few days. December 20, 2009.

Amtrak began its version of the ski train––Winter Park Express––in March 2015, and that seasonal train still operates today.

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On Christmas Day 53 years ago, Santa Fe waycar 999134 lays over the holiday at Needles, California. The decorated car was assigned to the Kingman District Local, which plied the rails between Needles and Seligman, Arizona, on an up-one-day-and-back-the -next schedule. The crew assigned to that train did the decorating. December 25, 1971.

I wish everyone a very merry Christmas and a great 2025.

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