RTD Union, Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1001, terms Denver's Union Station a "lawless hellhole"

Safety

The union cited violent crime and drug activity, specifically marijuana smoke, as the problem.

Lex Anteinternet: Pandemic Part 7. The Litigation Edition

Lex Anteinternet: Pandemic Part 7. The Litigation Edition:   November 10, 2021

The Union Pacific and the Burlington Northern have gone to court to determine if they can impose mandates on their employees, which they wish to do. Their unions are resisting the efforts on the basis that the railroads didn't negotiate first. That is, the unions support vaccinations, but they wanted the railroads to negotiate on the incentives first.

South Torrington Railroad Station, Torrington Wyoming (Homesteader's Museum).

Above is a fisheye view of the South Torrington Railroad Station.  I used this view as its a long station, and to get the entire station in otherwise I would have had to walk across the highway, which was busy.

This station is unusual in that it was designed by noted National Park lodge architect Gilbert Stanley Underwood in the Mission Revival and Spanish Colonial Revival Style.  Originally built in 1926, it was extended in order to accommodate both passenger and freight service, with its original purpose being reflected in the fact that it remains right across the street from a sugar refinery.

As with so many other depots, this one is no longer used by the Union Pacific, but it's well-preserved and now used as the Goshen County Homesteader's Museum.

Repurposing

House made of streetcars, July 15, 1921.

 

Towns and Nature: West Liberty, IA: Rock Island Depot and Preserved ...

Towns and Nature: West Liberty, IA: Rock Island Depot and Preserved ...: ( Satellite ) Roger Kujawa posted seven photos with the comment: "West Liberty, Iowa. Rock island 1913 era caboose." Dennis DeBrul...

May 25, 1921. Road construction.

 Locomotive pulling cars, possibly during road construction.  May 25, 1921.

Susitna Bridge on the Alaska Railroad with mountains in background, Alaska, May 17, 1921

 

Lex Anteinternet: Subscribe by email "gadget" going away.

Lex Anteinternet: Subscribe by email "gadget" going away.: Google seems pretty intent on destroying the Blogger format, which means that for people like me, who have blogged on blogger, we have a cho...

Lex Anteinternet: April 12, 1921 International hands off, and hands...

Lex Anteinternet: April 12, 1921 International hands off, and hands...:    This railroad disaster was photographed in Alaska:

Amtrak Expansion. Cheyenne to Denver, and beyond!?

I have real problems, I'll admit, with the scope of the proposed infrastructure spending proposals that President Biden is looking at, but if they go forward, I really hope we do see rail service restored (and that's what it would be) between Cheyenne and Denver.

The plan proposes to invest $80B in Amtrak.  Yes, $80B.  Most of that will go to repairs, believe it or not, as the Amtrak has never been a favorite of the Republican Party, which in its heard of hearts feels that the quasi public rail line is simply a way of preserving an obsolete mode of transportation at the Government's expense.  But rail has been receiving a lot of attention recently for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that in a now carbon conscious era, it's the greenest mode of transportation taht we have, something the commercial rail lines have been emphasizing.

Indeed, if the American public wasn't afraid of a nuclear power the same way that four year olds are afraid of monsters that live under their beds, it could be greener yet, and there's some talk of now supporting nuclear power among serious informed environmentalists.  A campaign to push that, called the Solutionary Rail, is now active.  We'll deal with that some other time.

Here we're noting that we're hopeful that if this does go through, and as noted we have real reservations about this level of expenditure, that Amtrak does put in a passenger line from Cheyenne to Pueblo.  

A line connecting Ft. Collins to Denver has been a proposal in Colorado for quite a while and has some backing there.  The same line of thought has already included Cheyenne.  This has a lot to do with trying to ease the burgeoning traffic problem this area experiences due to the massive population growth in Colorado.  Wyomingites, I suppose, should therefore approach this with some caution as it would tie us into the Front Range communities in a way that we might not want to be.  Still, it's an interesting idea.

It's one that for some reason I think will fall through, and I also suspect it'll receive no support in Wyoming. Still, it's interesting.

Smoking like one of the old ones. Union Pacific pusher engine, Medicine Bow, Wyoming.

 

Lex Anteinternet: March 24, 1941. The "Wild West Cowboys"

Lex Anteinternet: March 24, 1941. Reversal of fortunes in North Afr...: 

The last of New York's "Wild West Cowboys", mounted men who rode in front of the city's urban freight trains in Manhattan to clear pedestrians, made his last ride. After this date, the mounted riders were retired from that service, there being at that time only one left.

Railhead: Retired steam engine, Rawlins Wyoming

Railhead: Retired steam engine, Rawlins Wyoming: An old thread updated.

Blog Mirror: Virtual Railfan

 Virtual Railfan