Rio Grande train #101 glides west through Provo on the sunny afternoon of October 9, 1986. Note the mix of Santa Fe and Burlington Northern box cars on the head end, a decade before the merger.

Long before it gained notoriety leading the dirt train local out of Helper, Rio Grande 5390 works Grand Junction to Roper freight #151 west through Provo on October 15, 1986. The Rio Grande passen... (more)

BNSF Railway's QPVDVJ trackage rights manifest prepares to depart Provo Yard for Denver.

Rio Grande's Tintic Local breezes west through Ironton with 11 Moroni grain empties from the Spanish Fork Sugar Factory rail to truck transload site. A tank car is spotted just outside the Reilly ... (more)

One probably wouldn't expect to see a pair of McCloud River Railroad SD38s dragging a long freight train in Utah. The power short Union Pacific leased two of these EMDs from McCloud between 1988 a... (more)

Rio Grande train #101, interchange received from the BN at Denver and delivered to the SP at Ogden, crosses Freedom Boulevard in Provo on a stormy June 8, 1986 afternoon.

Rio Grande train #187 rolls west by a work train parked in the former Salt Lake & Utah Railroad interchange yard at Provo Junction. Crews often referred to this area as 'Backman's' named for a fou... (more)

Rio Grande GP40-2s lead a Speno Rail Grinder along the westward main track at Provo Yard.

After making a pickup at Provo Yard, a Rio Grande freight performs an air test at the D&RGW depot prior to its departure west to Roper Yard.

Union Pacific's Sharp, Utah to Valmy, Nevada coal load departs Provo for the Silver State. Today this right of way hosts a double track commuter rail line owned by the Utah Transit Authority.

Rio Grande's Geneva Turn departs Provo rolling west by the D&RGW passenger depot, built in 1910 and dismantled in 1986. A tiny glass enclosure with a push button heater and a pay phone for Amtrak ... (more)

Rio Grande local #676 enters Provo Yard with a sizable train of ballast loads from the Geneva Pipe Mill Spur in Vineyard. Conductor Neal Thorpe is pictured emerging from the the 3130's cab.

When the D&RGW removed its first generation EMDs from local duties out of Provo in October 1984, it assigned GP40 and GP40-2s as replacement power. The 3130, built by EMD in March 1983, takes a br... (more)

Rio Grande 5771 departs Provo Yard leading ballast train #684 on July 20, 1983.

By the mid-1980s, most cabooses on the D&RGW were living on borrowed time. Caboose 01489 was spotted in fresh paint near Provo on June 20, 1984. It was originally constructed by the Rio Grande at ... (more)