Busiest line in Colorado?

[dalek ling]

Hi, I’m trying to railfan around Colorado, and I was wondering, which branch line is the busiest? I’m also interested in seeing Amtrak too.

[cfriedri]

Colorado is a big place so it's hard to narrow down specifically what you're asking for. Former D&RGW coal branches can be hit or miss with decreases in coal usage in the past many years. The Craig Branch runs from Bond to Craig via Steamboat Springs - very scenic but train frequency is low. The front range north of Denver has a few branches - UP runs from La Salle to Fort Collins to serve a cement plant by Boettcher and various other industries. BNSF has a branch from Broomfield to Lafayette which has some interesting stoplight-type crossing signals to serve a lumber distributor and they also have a branch from Longmont to Lyons that has cement and coal. The Great Western Railway is a big assembly of branches centered around Windsor and Johnstown with a wide variety of industries. South of Denver you're looking at the Joint Line which has decent action but not really any branches. None of the branches aforementioned really have high train frequency but such is the nature of branch traffic. The Moffat Sub isn't very high traffic so there's no guarantee you'll see anything in the tunnel district or at Moffat Tunnel despite all the driving it typically takes to get to those places. If I were to plan a trip out to Colorado to see trains, I'd spend a day on the Joint Line between Denver and Colorado Springs, a day on the front range UP and BNSF mains with a side excursion to Cheyenne, and a day out on the Moffat Sub between Denver and the East Portal of Moffat Tunnel just to see the infrastructure and if lucky, a train or two. Worth driving to Leadville and that general area to see the infrastructure of Tennessee Pass if you're willing to spend the drive and time there. Best of luck!

[J T]

Hi, I’m trying to railfan around Colorado, and I was wondering, which branch line is the busiest? I’m also interested in seeing Amtrak too.

The CZ takes the Moffat Route, with #5 generally departing Denver in the morning (it departed on time at 8:05am today) and #6 arriving in the evening (around 6:45pm). You also have the Southwest Chief going through the southeast corner of Colorado. As cfriedri mentioned, it's probably best to plan a day for the joint line and another day (or two) for the Moffat route. I've done both and have actually spent more days on Moffat between the Big Ten Curve and the Moffat Tunnel, but that's because I like to photograph trains in awesome scenery.

Moffat:

AMTK6-6687-2 by Jim Thias, on Flickr

Joint line:

BNSF-0421 by Jim Thias, on Flickr