Two SD9s, Burlington’s locomotive of choice on its Wyoming lines, set out across the North Platte River from the quiet town of Guernsey on a warm October afternoon in 1964 with a short freight for Casper. Those hoppers probably carry iron ore from Colorado Fuel & Iron’s nearby Sunrise mine. The flood of Powder Fiver coal is still a dozen years in the future. But when the coal comes, everything here will change. The bridge will be rebuilt, the tracks doubled, the small engine terminal expanded and the tunnel west of town daylighted in a massive engineering project. By 2014, a large oil terminal will be built online. Unit tank trains will join the parade of coal, and Guernsey will no longer be so quiet.
