As exhaust rises into the illumination of a light tower, Rio Grande EMD SD40T-2 No. 5371 rests next to the venerable sand tower at Helper, Utah, on the night of October 23, 2007. By this autumnal ... (more)

THISTLE UT Aug 22 1981 — Rio Grande GP30 3013 charges west. This location was destroyed when a huge slide began on April 14, 1983 (http://utahrails.net/drgw/thistle-vanished.php). Web site utah... (more)

Where do you think this is?… Colorado or Utah? Nope.… Kansas? Nope.… But if you guessed Wisconsin, you’d be right on target. This is one of those infamous Wisconsin Central ore/coal moves ... (more)

Led by Rio Grande SD40T-2 No. 5390, Union Pacific’s LJP45 dirt train rolls through the desert between Wash and Mounds, Utah, on April 5, 2005.

It's a winter scene as the eastbound Zephyr navigates the Price River Canyon. (Tom Ellis photo).

In what could be a scene from the 1930's, the Colorado Railroad Museum's DRGW 491 (built by Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1902) runs past the Rio Grande water tower on the museum grounds in Golden, ... (more)

The Colorado Railroad Museum lets their Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad #491 (2-8-2) stretch its legs running passengers around the museum grounds in Golden, Colorado.

A pair of grimy Rio Grande SD40T-2 Tunnel Motors help Amtrak’s California Zephyr with some extra power over Soldier Summit on July 7, 1988. The train is now heading downgrade through the curves ... (more)

By mid-2002, there were still 47 former Rio Grande EMD SD40T-2s running on the Union Pacific system, but only seven were not patched or painted yellow. At this time, a quartet called Helper, Utah,... (more)

Waiting for duty, a trio of Rio Grande SD40T-2 Tunnel Motors bask in the summer sun in the engine facility at Helper, Utah, on August 7, 1996.

It’s a mostly cloudy early afternoon in the desert country of Utah on February 4, 2003, as a fortuitous sliver of sun illuminates a quartet of Rio Grande Tunnel Motors on Union Pacific’s LJP45... (more)

By February 2006, Rio Grande EMD SD40T-2 No. 5371 was the last Denver & Rio Grande Western locomotive on the Union Pacific system in its original unpatched paint and road number. Slumbering next t... (more)

If a railroad knew something about operating a railroad through the mountains, not around them, it was certainly the Rio Grande. On a railroad riddled with grades and tunnels, it took a page from ... (more)

PUEBLO CO June 16 1973 — Rio Grande SD9 5313 leads a caboose hop as it travels south. My photo.

A Full-Size "Model Railroad." How many of us had a 4 x 8 HO train layout in the basement when we were younger? Mine looked a lot like this - a mix of old and new railroad equi... (more)