by Bryan Bechtold/photos by the author
I have a Rock heart. At an impressionable age, while living in Central Illinois, I witnessed the Rock Island’s final gasps. I became smitten with it. After college I moved to Denver where the mountains called me to play and railfan. As the high ground has now become crowded and trains through the Rockies less frequent, I have gone looking for signs of my past love’s presence in eastern Colorado and western Kansas.
Predecessors started laying rail in Illinois in 1847, and by 1854, Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific became the first railroad to connect Chicago with the Mississippi River. It built westward across the land ocean in 1888, leaving a trail of water tank settlements in its wake. Serving the agricultural heartland, the railroad’s fortunes followed the boom and bust of the grain harvest cycle for most of its life. After a proud but financially troubled history, the railroad entered merger talks with Union Pacific in 1964. It took 12 years for the merger to be approved by the Interstate Commerce Commission. By then, UP was no longer interested in the creaky Rock Island. Decades of deferred maintenance, combined with a bad balance sheet, led the Rock into its final bankruptcy in 1975. And the final curtain closed on the drama in 1980 with the liquidation of the Rock’s assets, lasting through 1983.
ABOVE: Wind power has been a fixture on the plains since the days of pioneer settlers. Windmills with wooden towers have become scarce. This one gave in to the wind and has collapsed since this image was taken. A Kyle train eases downgrade only a mile from the yard at Limon, Colo., on August 14, 2016.
To help protect the Kansas wheat harvest, the western main line through Colorado and Kansas was bought by Mid-States Port Authority, but remained semi-dormant until an operator could be found to lease the property and make a fresh start. That operator would be Willis B. Kyle, an owner of several West Coast short lines. You guessed correctly — Kyle named the new railroad for himself. An operating contract was signed with MSPA and an assortment of secondhand Burlington Northern Alco C-425s were brought in to get the operation moving in 1982. In 1991, Kyle added significant former Missouri Pacific branch line trackage to expand to a 556-mile regional railroad. Rail America took over in 2002, which was, in turn, acquired by Genesee & Wyoming in 2012. Though the exotic Alcos are long gone, the Kyle name has persisted throughout.
Rock Remnants
This is not a tale of corporate acquisitions for me, though. It is one of discovery and appreciation — for the land, the people, and the railroad that gave birth to these rural communities and continues to bind them.
Sure, I had photographed “way out east” of Denver on the former Rock Island early on, but finding trains moving slowly through the vast plains was difficult and time-consuming. More recently, I concentrated on what I call “Rock collecting,” driving the route of the Rocky Mountain Rocket looking for the remaining elements that were unique to the company that built it — the choices in architecture, engineering, signaling, and the other details every railroad makes that imprint its distinctive personality on the land. Uncovering these remaining fingerprints of the Rock became the purpose of my trips, and if I could find a train to follow, all the better.
ABOVE: The hamlet of Stuttgart, Kan., is a shadow of its former glory. The elevator is closed and there are no retail businesses left. Nearly forgotten on the elevator siding is a Pullman-Standard gem built in 1959, now in stationary company service.
The minimalist landscape of the plains is a beautiful challenge to the railroad photographer. The infinite horizon is as great a story as the trains moving across it. Montana can claim “Big Sky Country,” but here, there are no mountain ridges and even fewer trees to break the endless sky. The weather dominates. You can see a storm coming hours in advance, watch it move through, and, if you’re lucky, catch a rainbow for your patience.
In time, I did find trains and picked up on the rhythm of Kyle operations. You don’t chase the Kyle; it’s more of a Sunday drive. This is old-time railroading, picking up and setting out cars one elevator at a time. It could take more than a week for a train to make the 214-mile round trip from Goodland, Kan., to Limon, Colo. It was not unusual for the train to advance only 30 miles before a crew change was needed. When a train arrives in Goodland, switching the yard can consume the better part of a day, which is not necessarily a bad thing. It gives you plenty of time to discover and photograph the details, and explore away from the rails.
ABOVE: The former passenger station in Goodland, Kan., is showing its age. It has been remodeled with newer windows but still retains some of its mid-century looks.
The Forgotten Center of Town
Remarkably, several depots remain along the Rock right-of-way. Goodland’s mid-century depot served the last Rocky Mountain Rocket in 1966, and is the western outpost for Kyle operations. Train crews are based here, as are track maintenance personnel. At the far west end, Limon’s depot is part of the town’s excellent museum, with the Kyle’s interchange with UP’s Kansas Pacific line passing right out front.
Other depots are not so lucky. Once bustling places of commerce and news from the outside world, they are nearly invisible relics in the towns they served. The Stratton, Burlington, and Jennings depots remain in place, but are vacant and decaying. In this age of sanitized railroad infrastructure, their signature porthole-windowed doors and faded yellow paint are a welcome photographic gift. How much longer can they withstand the elements? Other remaining depots have been moved off-line and repurposed on farms. Taking the time to chat with the depot owner can usually provide an interesting story and photo access.
ABOVE: Among the last cars built new for the Rock Island in 1978, these boxcars retained their original blue paint as they traveled the country for their new owners. Most, if not all, have been repainted mineral red by Kyle.
Other subtle Rock Island attributes remain. Until recently, Vona’s water supply was furnished by a relocated railroad water tank; the old tank remains alongside the shiny new one. In Kanorado, a town appropriately named for the state line it sits on, a demarcation of the border installed by CRI&P is upstaged by Colorado’s official highway version. The small metal trackside markers, painted with both states’ names, were used by the Rock Island across the system. The largest artifact in Kanorado’s town museum is a rare RI drover’s caboose. The Rock’s derelict automatic block signals serve as a reminder of the former commercial importance of the route. Some stand tall; others have been bulldozed into the weeds.
Since I started my Rock collecting project, other artifacts have been uncovered and just as quickly vanished. Some notable landmarks have been slowly picked apart. Goodland was a Rock division point and once boasted a 24-stall roundhouse. The roundhouse was taken down at the end of steam and a metal enginehouse to service diesels was constructed. In turn, the enginehouse was dismantled in the early 1990s and re-erected in a farmyard west of town. The Goodland turntable remained in place until 2015 when it was unceremoniously cut up and sent to scrap in gondolas. The turntable pit was filled in, and the land turned into additional grain storage for a huge Scoular elevator. Change never stops, even at the slower pace of the plains….
