The Joint Line is a pair of parallel mainlines connecting Denver with Pueblo, about 120 miles to the south. One of these mainlines is the original 1880s-built Denver & Rio Grande Western line, with the other having been built by the competing Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe a few years later. A subsidiary of the Chicago Burlington & Quincy (and later Burlington Northern), the Colorado & Southern obtained trackage rights on the AT&SF line after abandoning their original line further to the east in the 1920s. It wasn’t long after this that the D&RGW and AT&SF (including the C&S) would operate their lines as a double track mainline, with any of the three railroads’ trains generally operating southbound on the Rio Grande and northbound on the Santa Fe. Today, through mergers, the Joint Line carries traffic from both the BNSF Railway and Union Pacific. On March 9, 2020, BNSF manifest H-DENPUE1-08, behind BNSF 6707, 4176, 7786 and 1625 heads south on the BNSF’s line as another BNSF train, 243-car empty coal train E-HAFBKM0-24, behind BNSF 6358, 5638 and 6344, with 8582, 9008 and 9601 in the middle, and 9918 and 6182 on the rear, heads north on the Union Pacific’s line. (Pueblo, Colorado – near Piñon Road)
