New Mexico Rail Runner Express—Part Two of Four
Continuing a short series of posts on the Rail Runner Express—we’re south of Albuquerque at this stage...
The first image has us crossing over the Rio Grande at a point about ten miles south of Albuquerque. Again, we’re traveling on on the former Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway here. The second image shows us the very point where, in 1879, that important railway began a new line westward toward California via the Atlantic & Pacific Charter—at Isleta, New Mexico.
And the third image has us at the southern terminus of the Rail Runner Express at Belen. This is where the Santa Fe’s well-known Belen Cutoff joins the show; nearly all of the freight on the Santa Fe came from the east via this cutoff, and now all of it does so on the successor road BNSF. The tracks one sees above, with the stack trains thereon, will move in a northwestwardly direction to meet the A&P line and then on westward toward California.
Three images by Richard Koenig; taken October 24th 2019.