WaltersRail : Fall Colors I

This is the first of two articles showcasing fall colors across the railroads of the United States. The images are not inclusive, because I have not visited many areas of the country, and for many of those I have surveyed, I have not visited in the fall.

In the fall, at least in my experience, timing is everything. The date when leaves turn can vary significantly from year to year. Also, leaves can turn very rapidly. Included below are images from the Ouachita Mountains of southeastern Oklahoma and southwestern Arkansas. I have for many years visited the area in late October and early November, hoping to see spectacular yellows, oranges and reds, only to be repeatedly frustrated. Because of their southern latitude, the trees in those mountains some years barely turn at all. Other years, the parade of color can last only a few days.

I kept returning from year to year and eventually, like a blind hog finding an acorn, I stumbled across some fall color. Thus, in addition to time, simple perseverance is needed for autumn photography.

I have been taking railroad images for more than 50 years, and my efforts pale in comparison to others. Still, because it is a quiet Saturday in December and I have nothing better to do, I present my humble contribution.

Colorado

In Colorado, what once was a tsunami of rail traffic has been reduced to a trickle. Even so, the scenery is so spectacular that a week or more in the mountains, which may yield only a few trains per day, will produce a level of sheer pleasure that far outweighs the dearth of traffic.

Fall color in the mountains generally reaches its peak in the last two weeks of September. Trees at different elevations turn at different times, so if the leaves are gone at one location, simply move downgrade. Few trees are more spectacular than yellow Aspen, but the color can go fast, at least it can go fast when I'm around.

Eastbound Rocky Mountaineer dead-heading back to Denver. This location is along the Colorado River just east of Kremmling. A good gravel road leads up into public land among the hills above the river valley.

An eastbound crude oil train beside the Colorado River approaches Bond. This location is above a short tunnel.

Westbound BNSF manifest on trackage rights approaches Kremmling. U.S. 40 follows the tracks from Granby to Kremmling and the approach to Gore Canyon. The railroad bores through the middle of the water gap, while the highway turns north to Steamboat Springs.

An eastbound oil train climbing the grade to Winter Park and the west portal of Moffat Tunnel, with clouds obscuring the Continental Divide.

Coal load approaching Byers Canyon. U.S. 40 runs beneath the trees beside the Colorado River.

DPU at Hot Sulphur Springs. This loaded coal drag dodged showers all the way to Denver.

Westbound Amtrak. This location requires a significant hike but is worth the effort.

Westbound Rocky Mountaineer at the same location.

Eastbound Amtrak at sunset. The train is approaching Byers Canyon, where a track detector will allert the crew by radio, regardless of train speed, to slow down!

Westbound Amtrak approaching Winter Park. The train has just exited Moffat Tunnel. This location is easily approachable by any vehicle.

Eastbound BNSF approaching Moffat Tunnel -- same location as above but looking opposite direction.

Running about three hours late, eastbound Amtrak has just passed Kremmling. This is a favorite location for photography, though in the 21st century, traffic is very light.

Westbound Rocky Mountaineer running on time at same location.

Amtrak dodging rain. Hay has been gathered for the coming winter, which is fierce at this elevation.

Loaded coal south of Phippsburg. Traffic through the once busy yard had slowed to a trickle when this image was taken in 2015.

Loaded coal awaiting crew in Phippsburg. In prior years, the yard was always jammed with trains.

BNSF Office Car Special. John Shine alerted me to this train, which I otherwise would have missed.

Bozeman Pass

On my one trip to Bozeman Pass in the fall, I found only a few Aspen buried in a hollow beside a small pond. Here are the results.

The BNSF heritage unit leads a westbound manifest. Since BNSF reacquired from MRL the old Northern Pacific line through Montana, traffic in 2025 (when this image was taken) had about doubled.

Helper set pushing westbound grain. Bozeman Pass sustains large open areas of grass, with small, almost-dwarf evergreens clinging to the crest of the mountains. This small stand of Aspens was growing around a small pond created by the embankment of I-90.

CPKC in the Ouachita Mountains

As mentioned, I spent many years vainly searching for fall colors in the Ouachita Mountains. Then shortly after the Canadian Pacific purchased the KCS and became the CPKC, I happened upon the grade from Page, Oklahoma, to Rich Mountain, Arkansas, when the hardwood leaves transformed to reds, oranges and yellows.

I first saw the Rich Mountain grade in 1972 when the KCS was falling apart, when the right-of-way was littered with the detritus of various derailments. Over the years, as I returned, the KCS rehabilitated itself with the revenue from coal trains, but I never saw anyone else photographing the line.

Sometime in the 21st century, that changed. I do not know why, but during my visits I began to see others along the tracks, mostly from Oklahoma and Arkansas, but some who had traveled long distances, from California and Georgia, for example.

The images below were taken in November 2023, when during the weekend there were about 20 people following southbound trains (compass east) creeping up the grade to Rich Mountain. I felt like a member of a traveling carnival, like the caravan of vehicles that chase Union Pacific steam excursions.

I miss the solitude.

CP and KCS power lead a southbound (compass east) manifest on the approach to Rich Mountain -- beside Big Creek.

Northbound (compass west) coal empties at Page, Oklahoma. When this image was taken, your author was surrounded by about 15 other people.

Approaching Rich Mountain at sundown. Everyone had gone home except me.

Loaded grain struggling into the grade. Before the KCS upgraded its tracks because of the coal explosion, this area of the railroad was prone to what the crews termed "Rocking Speed," when the vibrations of a train would match and reinforce the vibrations in the rails, and the cars would sway violently from side to side, derailing from time to time.

Southbound (compass east) approaching the Oklahoma-Arkansas border, where a couple of hardy souls operate a bar with one door in Arkansas and the other in Oklahoma. You order your drinks in one state and consume them in the other.

Stacks approaching Oklahoma. Intermodal traffic is infrequent on this line, at least as of November 2023. These stacks were part of a larger, mixed freight.

Retrobelles climbing the Rich Mountain grade. When new, the Retrobelles were as shiny and impressive as pristine Warbonnets. Over time, their glory has faded, as does everything else, including your author.

Loaded coal. Although the cognoscenti have done their best to excommunicate hydrocarbons from their holy church, coal loads still regularly rumble across the Rich Mountain summit.

DPU's on loaded coal. This train was traveling eight miles per hour as it reached the top of the grade.

Retrobelles dodging a shower. The Ouachita Mountains generate much rain -- 50-60 inches per year -- which makes the vegetation grow so fast that you can almost see it rising from the ground.

Page, Oklahoma -- once a small settlement. Today it is just a passing siding on the railroad, though a few houses remain tucked into the forest.

Southbound (compass east) at the Page Siding and the beginning of the Rich Mountain grade.

Page, Oklahoma, along Big Creek.

Rio Grande

The Rio Grande was my favorite railroad. Other mountain lines were impressive -- Tehachapi, Mullan, Marias, Donner -- but none could match the grandeur of Big Ten Loop and the Tunnel District climb to Moffat Tunnel, or the depths of Gore Canyon, or the even greater depths of the Royal Gorge, or the three percent grade on the west side of Tennessee Pass.

The Rio Grande's purchase of the SP was the beginning of the end, followed by the UP's purchase of the combined Rio Grande and SP. Union Pacific almost immediately closed the Tennessee Pass line, an unforgivable sin, and the Moffat Route in the 21st century is a shadow of its former glory.

My photographic efforts along the D&RGW occurred mostly in the summer, but I did manage a few shots in the fall.

We all have regrets. One of my biggest is my failure to spend more time on the Rio Grande.

An eastbound Rio Grande mixed freight approaching Byers Canyon. This image was taken in late September 1988, when traffic on the mainline was moderate. One could expect to see 4-8 freights in the light, some of which would be coal drags, plus two Amtrak movements (assuming the eastbound was on time, or close thereto). When I last visited in 2024, you might spend an entire day on the line and see one Amtrak. Sigh.

Another eastbound at Kremmling, Colorado. When this image was taken, I had no idea that Gore Canyon was downriver only a few miles.

But the next day, overcast and rainy, I explored along a good gravel road leading up a mountain, crested the top, turned downgrade and found Inspiration Point -- in a light rain. I was stunned by the view and even more stunned that a Rio Grande freight was approaching. I stopped in the small parking lot, jumped out and grabbed this image.

This is Inspiration Point on a clear day in September.

Westbound Amtrak approaching Moffat Tunnel, with a private car of the long defunct Rail Ventures. I think the gentlemen on the rear platform were consuming adult beverages. I wonder if they went inside when the train hit the tunnel.

Byers Canyon. In the 1980's, Rio Grande ran two trailer trains between Denver and Salt Lake City. This is the westbound.

Loaded coal on the Craig Branch at Yampa, Colorado. The train is barely moving on the grade, and the ground is shaking like a small earthquake.

Coal load descending through Crater Loops on the Craig Branch. This was the first time I saw the Crater Loops, and this image does not go them justice. I would return many times in the future.

Here is a better look at the loops, though not in the fall. This image was taken after the Rio Grande had acquired the SP. Filthy Southern Pacific power was leading the empty coal drag up the mountain.

LaCrosse, Wisconsin

The Mississippi River at LaCrosse has carved through some amazing bluffs and highlands. Today (January 2026) BNSF follows the east bank, while CPKC hugs the western shore.

The CPKC (formerly Soo and before that Milwaukee Road) mainline to Chicago crosses the river at LaCrosse, while a secondary main to Kansas City continues south along the river on a dark subdivision that extends to Marquette, where a branch line turns west into Iowa farmlands while CTC starts again on the secondary main south.

I have followed the tracks as far south as Pike's Peak State Park, where a scenic overlook provides a spectacular view of the BNSF open span bridge across the Wisconsin River.

The CPKC line follows the river bank closely and is filled with narrow turns and tight running through small settlements. Freights average about 30 miles per hour at best and are easy to follow, though several stretches of the nearby highway detour up into the bluffs above the water where the tracks are obscured by foliage.

A CPKC oil train, with a BNSF DPU, approaches the bridge across the Mississippi River. This image, and several others below, was taken from the small railfan pavilion maintained in Dakota, Minnesota. In my last visit (October 2025), foliage was beginning to crowd the right-of-way.

Northbound mixed freight on a rainy afternoon. This is one of the many tight curves on the CPKC line south to Kansas City. On the right side of the image, the state highway hugs the tracks.

Southbound BNSF stacks approach Glen Haven, Wisconsin, a miniscule settlement approached either by a gravel road running through the forest along the river or a narrow county road many miles from the nearest state highway. It is difficult to exaggerate the isolation of this village.

From Iowa's Pike's Peak State Park, this is the view of the BNSF bridge across the Wisconsin River.

Another image from Glen Haven, Wisconsin. The tiny village sits in a hollow between the tall bluffs.


Amtrak 1340 (Borealis) on its daily run from the Twin Cities to Chicago -- at Dakota, Minnesota.

South of LaCrosse along the Mississippi. The local establishment in the background seemed to be well patronized.

Northbound on the CPKC on a very cold October day. The lead unit is the "Saint John Express," as can be seen in the image immediately below.

In 2021, Canadian Pacific repainted this locomotive in the colors of Hapag-Lloyd, an important intermodal customer, to celebrate the commencement of a new container service in Port Saint John, New Brunswick. Here the locomotive leads an empty oil train near the CPKC's bridge across the Mississippi to LaCrosse.

A BNSF Z-train at Wyalusing, Wisconsin, another tiny settlement along the river. The river valley feels like a world unto itself, and the people who live in sight of the water seem to be a different breed, as though geography shapes our culture and thoughts.