Limon Railroad Depot (also known as Limon station) was a major

Union Pacific The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pac ...

and

Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad The Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad (CRI&P RW, sometimes called ''Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railway'') was an American Class I railroad. It was also known as the Rock Island Line, or, in its final years, The Rock. At the end ...

station in

Limon, Colorado Limon is a statutory town that is the most populous municipality in Lincoln County, Colorado, United States. The population was 1,880 at the 2010 United States Census. Limon has been called the "Hub City" of Eastern Colorado because Interst ...

. It has been on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

since 2003. It is included in what is now the Limon Heritage Museum and Railroad Park. It is one of seven still standing Rock Island Line stations in

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...

, and the only one restored.Listings in Lincoln County
Colorado Historical Society. Retrieved March 7, 2011

History

In 1870, the Kansas Pacific railroad, now

, was the first railroad to pass where the town of Limon is today. The town was not incorporated (and didn't have a station) yet so trains passed by without stopping on their way to

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

. In 1888, the

Rock Island Line "Rock Island Line" is an American folk song. Ostensibly about the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad, it appeared as a folk song as early as 1929. The first recorded performance of "Rock Island Line" was by inmates of the Arkansas Cummins ...

constructed a camp for workers building the main line to

Colorado Springs Colorado Springs is a home rule municipality in, and the county seat of, El Paso County, Colorado, United States. It is the largest city in El Paso County, with a population of 478,961 at the 2020 United States Census, a 15.02% increase since ...

. The track intersected the Union Pacific track where the depot is now.Lincoln County History
. Retrieved February 20, 2011 The town was named after the construction supervisor for the railroad, John Limon. The Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific (Rock Island Line) then decided that Denver would be a better western terminus for their trains. In 1889, the two railroads reached an agreement to allow "The Rock" to use Union Pacific's Limon Subdivision line on

trackage rights Railway companies can interact with and control others in many ways. These relationships can be complicated by bankruptcies. Operating Often, when a railroad first opens, it is only a short spur of a main line. The owner of the spur line may ...

. Before that, trains went to Colorado Springs and used

Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad The Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad , often shortened to ''Rio Grande'', D&RG or D&RGW, formerly the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, was an American Class I railroad company. The railroad started as a narrow-gauge line running south from D ...

track north to Denver. Limon became a major junction for the two railroads, since it was where trains such as the ''

Rocky Mountain Rocket The ''Rocky Mountain Rocket'' was a streamlined passenger train of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad. Rock Island's train numbers 7 and 8 ran between Chicago's LaSalle Street Station and Denver's Union Station and Colorado Springs ...

'' split to Denver or Colorado Springs, respectively.Rock Island Line map
Retrieved February 20, 2011 In the 1980s, approximately 70 miles of former Rock Island and Cadillac and Lake City Railway track between Limon and Colorado Springs was removed. Evidence of the former

right-of-way Right of way is the legal right, established by grant from a landowner or long usage (i.e. by prescription), to pass along a specific route through property belonging to another. A similar ''right of access'' also exists on land held by a gov ...

can still be easily seen along the route. In Colorado Springs, a 5.8 mile part of the right-of-way has been turned into a rail trail known as the Rock Island Trail. Northeast of Colorado Springs, the track closely followed U.S. Highway 24 and included a large trestle over Big Sandy Creek. The building was damaged by the 1990

tornado A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, altho ...

that tore through Limon, destroying 50 to 75 percent of the business district. The first major event after the tornado was the Weekend Western Festival in June 1992.

Service

Passenger

Limon was considered a union depot for the Union Pacific and Rock Island Line railways. It served many trains on the ex-Kansas Pacific Kansas City—

main line and Rock Island Line Omaha—Colorado Springs main line. It was the end of the "Limon Shuffle" where the popular ''Rocky Mountain Rocket'' train split into two trains.

Freight

Limon is at the western end of the

Kyle Railroad The Kyle Railroad is a regional railroad line that runs from North Central Kansas into Eastern Colorado. It is based in Phillipsburg, Kansas and runs on track, mostly the former Rock Island Railroad Chicago to Denver main line. The Kyle was o ...

, a

short line railroad :''Short Line is also one of the four railroads in the American version of the popular board game Monopoly, named after the Shore Fast Line, an interurban streetcar line.'' A shortline railroad is a small or mid-sized railroad company that opera ...

that operates on the former Rock Island Line to Nebraska.Limon Train Show
. Retrieved February 20, 2011 The railroad entered service in 1982. The line often interchanges cars with the

. Union Pacific also runs about 12 trains a day on the Limon Subdivision, the ex-Kansas Pacific main line.

Limon Heritage Museum and Railroad Park

The depot is now home to the Limon Heritage Museum and Railroad Park, a large historical museum. Railroad Park includes a Union Pacific

caboose A caboose is a crewed North American railroad car coupled at the end of a freight train. Cabooses provide shelter for crew at the end of a train, who were formerly required in railway switch, switching and Shunting (rail), shunting, keeping a l ...

, a

model railroad Railway modelling (UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland) or model railroading (US and Canada) is a hobby in which rail transport systems are modelled at a reduced scale. The scale models include locomotives, rolling stock, streetcars, t ...

layout of the 1940s Limon Yard, and a 1914 dining car. It is the site of the annual Limon Railroad Days, which happens in June. It also includes the Rock Island Snow Plow No. 95580, a single-track wedge plow, which was listed on the

in 2018.

References

External links

Limon Heritage Museum and Railroad Park
- official site
Picture of stationA Union Pacific train crossing the C & RI at Limon; ca. 1976ourjourney.info
{{Authority control Former Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad stations Railway stations in the United States opened in 1889 Former Union Pacific Railroad stations in Colorado Railway stations on the National Register of Historic Places in Colorado Museums in Lincoln County, Colorado Railroad museums in Colorado History museums in Colorado National Register of Historic Places in Lincoln County, Colorado