02-05-2012, 05:32 PM
Just to be clear, this isn't the end of railroading or a sign of another massive recession. The original poster failed to mention that EMD/Cat is moving the operation to Indiana and is not shutting down.[/quote]
The trains rarely come to Canon City any more, and countless miles of track lie rusting and abandoned, choked with abandoned rolling stock by the hundreds, throughout my Colorado. The rail-served industries in this part of Colorado have gone away, and the last one in Canon City - the coal-fired power plant - is scheduled for closure when the distant plant near Pueblo comes on line. After that, except for the short stretch owned by the Royal Gorge Tourist Railroad, no one will any use for all of that abandoned track that goes NW clear up to Leadville and clear east to Pueblo to join the UP trackage southbound.
Most of the people in Canon City and Florance don't even know the history of their railroads, or where the tracks that are everywhere underfoot used to go...or still go.
I'm witnessing the passing of an era.
The trains rarely come to Canon City any more, and countless miles of track lie rusting and abandoned, choked with abandoned rolling stock by the hundreds, throughout my Colorado. The rail-served industries in this part of Colorado have gone away, and the last one in Canon City - the coal-fired power plant - is scheduled for closure when the distant plant near Pueblo comes on line. After that, except for the short stretch owned by the Royal Gorge Tourist Railroad, no one will any use for all of that abandoned track that goes NW clear up to Leadville and clear east to Pueblo to join the UP trackage southbound.
Most of the people in Canon City and Florance don't even know the history of their railroads, or where the tracks that are everywhere underfoot used to go...or still go.
I'm witnessing the passing of an era.