Rock Island U28B 273 has left Rio Grande’s North Yard and is on its way along the Denver Belt Line with eastbound 82 to Sandown Junction. There it will join UP’s Kansas line to begin its long run to Chicago. A bit of history: Rock Island built the Belt Line round the northern edge of Denver in 1951 in order to reach North Yards without a long roundabout trek through the congested city. The Stockyard branch, at left, in 1967 remains a reminder of Denver’s cattle heritage, serving what’s left of the city’s once vast Union Stockyards and linking the Rock with Chicago Burlington & Quincy’s 38th Street yard in Globeville. Today, almost 50s years after this picture, Rock island is gone but much of the Belt Line remains, owned by Denver Rock Island Railroad, a local switching line.
Not
just heritage schemes, not just commemorative schemes - this album is devoted to some of the world's most interesting paint schemes, past or present.
