A little past 1 p.m. on a perfect May Day, 1965, the Rocky Mountain Rocket turns its back on the Rockies and heads east out of Denver behind two 2250-hp E8As. Though there are only five cars in th... (more)

Although it wears a fresh coat of Rock Island’s maroon-and-white, GP40 348 is Union Pacific-owned, running on Union Pacific rails. Westbound here at Muncie, Kansas, just west of Kansas City on M... (more)

Second 81 crosses Kiowa Creek near Bennett behind EMD-re-engined FA 141, a load of autoracks out of Kansas City headed for dealers and showrooms in Denver and along the Front Range. It’s high su... (more)

Train 82, the morning freight east from Denver, is just starting its trek across the high plains at Mesa, behind year-old U25b 213. Today, this scene is all suburban sprawl, but on Feb. 3, 1965, U... (more)

Sunset over the Sunset Route: Booming along east of Lawrence, Kansas, F7A 676 has a couple head-end cars, an RDC and a coach, the remnants of Train 40, a once-important secondary run on the Southe... (more)

Six units, six paint schemes – in 1963 not an uncommon sight at the head end of Rock Island freight 82 out of Denver, here behind F7A 126. The train, mostly empty auto racks and interchange gath... (more)

One of a kind paint E 6 630 was leading a westbound commuter train into Joliet Union Station.

A westbound RI freight passes under the 7th Street viaduct in downtown Des Moines. Doing the honors, and all decked out in the newer blue and white color scheme, are slug-set 298-284-297. It is ... (more)

The dwarf signal tells us that we are alongside Kansas City Terminal Railway tracks at Union Station, where nameless Train 15, formerly the Kansas City Rocket, is just rolling in from Minneapolis-... (more)

You wouldn’t know it to see it today, but Train 39, westbound near Herington, Kansas, was once the Imperial, a secondary but important passenger run between Chicago and Southern California. But ... (more)

Just days off the erecting floor at GE’sErie, Pennsylvania, plant, spotless U25B 230 with two older sisters leads a freight up the approach to the Harry S Truman Bridge at Birmingham Missouri. O... (more)

The fall sugar beet “campaign” draws Colorado railfans to the UP, the Burlington, Colorado & Southern and the Great Western. Few think of the Rock Island, but on November 6, 1965, a westbound ... (more)

Creeping along in unfamiliar territory, Rock Island U25B 210 makes its way past damaged right-of-way at Spruce on Colorado’s Joint Line, on its way to Denver with piggyback and auto loads. The ... (more)

Extraordinary circumstances have brought Rock Island 131 to Palmer Lake on June 27, 1965. A massive series of storms two weeks before swept away almost every railroad line into Denver. UP’s trac... (more)

A baggage-express car, a coach and a snack-lounge behind a lone E-unit: This is all that’s left of the once-great Rocky Mountain Rocket by late September, 1966. Hard-pressed Rock Island lopped o... (more)