Scenes of the San Luis & Rio Grande and San Luis Central | July 2021
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- čas přidán 20. 02. 2023
- Alongside the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad operating in southern Colorado, two other railroads call the San Luis Valley home: the San Luis & Rio Grande and the San Luis Central. During my time chasing the C&TSRR, I took some time to attempt going after some of the freight trains that both railroads operate, with mixed results.
The San Luis & Rio Grande, now the Colorado Pacific Rio Grande [CXRG] as of Feb. 2023, was the operator of the former DRGW lines out of Alamosa towards Monte Vista, Antonito, and La Veta to Walsenburg. Two trains on their Antonito Line were spotted, with PRLX SD70M #4687 acting as power on both runs. During the railroad's time being managed by trustee William Brandt following the Iowa Pacific bankruptcy, two SD70M's were brought in as power while a new bidder for the company was found. Although there's reportedly two active customers in Antonito, it was enough for the railroad to continue running trains down that line, which is featured in this video.
The San Luis Central is a 13 mile shortline running between Monte Vista and Center, CO, serving agricultural customers in the fertile valley. They currently own two locomotives, SW8 #70 and GE 70t #71. During the brief hour I was able to shoot some of their operations, the SW8 was doing the honors of hauling empty PMRX open top coal hoppers to Sugar Junction for interchange with the SLRG.
7/23/2021 | PRLX 4689 N:
Estrella | 0:31
La Fruto | 1:30
7/25/2021 | PRLX 4689 S:
Alamosa | 2:38
La Fruto | 3:39
Estrella | 4:27
La Jara | 5:27
La Jara Depot | 6:24
Bountiful | 7:39
Romeo | 8:50
Conejos River | 9:49
Antonito Depot | 11:04
7/26/2021 | SLC 70 S:
Monte Vista Outskirts | 12:32
SLC Shops | 14:23
Running around hoppers | 16:09
This is a *great* railroad.
That's so weird hearing an awesome K5LA combined with the sound of an A125.
It was jarring upon first hearing it, I thought it was an oddly tuned K5 variant at first until noticing the A125 when they were passing by their shops.
Believe the primary "export" is sugar beets and potatoes
Why such a big loco for a shortline,with a small train to pull??
Any changes since CXR bought them?
Not that I'm aware of, no. Both PRLX SD70M's, the 4687 and 4685, were spotted on property at Alamosa on Feb. 24th, 2023. I'm unsure as to what CXRG plans on doing with them; either returning them to Progress Rail and acquiring new power for the operations or keeping them on lease or outright purchasing them. No idea on if they have any planned track upgrades or changes to their everyday operations and interchanges with the UP and SLC.
@@AverageSoFloRailfan what’s track speed nowadays? And how busy are they?
@@SmokyHillsSwitcher I wouldn't know.
@@AverageSoFloRailfan Alamosa branch looks like 10mph but apparently La Veta used to be 35mph except on the curve it was 12mph. Course that was back around 2008 I think
I actually live in the area. I heeard there plans are to expand the railways and increase speed
Ex csx