This southbound train on the Joint Line isn't going anywhere, not a difficult deduction to make considering the open nose door and crew member killing time trackside. A derailment on the single-track portion of the Joint Line between Palmer Lake and Colorado Springs left the railroad spectacularly snarled for a day, with trains backed up in both directions along much of the line.
Burlington Northern had trackage rights over the Joint Line inherited from subsidiary Colorado & Southern. These units in BN's elegant cream-and-green scheme (with no. 9480 in the lead) are on Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe rails, seen from the adjacent Spruce Mountain Road north of Larkspur, Colorado.
