Brisk north winds scatter dust and exhaust as Rock Island train 82 begins its daily eastbound trek out of Denver for Blue Island, Illinois. U28B 256 leads eight hard-working units that including an almost-new Rock Island U33B and a Southern Pacific SD45. We’re at Havana and Smith Road, east of the airport, standing alongside Union Pacific’s Kansas line, which gives Rock Island access to the Mile-High City. The surrounding fields, habitat of jack rabbits and rattlesnakes, are bare now, but come back in, say, 2015, and you’ll see a high-rise hotel, sprawling suburbs, and construction of a brand new light rail line, part of Denver’s growing RTD system.
