Palmer Lake (Joint Line)

Palmer Lake is one of the premier railfanning locations on Colorado's Joint Line, the shared BNSF/UP corridor running 119 miles between Denver and Pueblo. The town sits at the summit of the Palmer Divide at 7,225 feet — a full 2,000 feet above Denver — making it the highest point on the line. This elevation means every northbound train has just completed a sustained climb, while southbounds are beginning their descent toward Colorado Springs.

The location is a "pinch point" where the Joint Line's double track configuration narrows. In 1974, the segment between Palmer Lake and Crews (near Fountain) was converted to bi-directional single-track operation, so trains frequently queue up here waiting for meets and passes. This bunching effect is a gift for railfans — rather than waiting long intervals between trains, you may see several movements in quick succession as dispatchers work trains through the bottleneck.

Access could not be simpler: exit Interstate 25 at exit 161, drive northwest on Highway 105 for approximately 5 miles into the town of Palmer Lake. Several public viewpoints along local roads put you within yards of the main line. The Palmer Lake Recreation Area at 199 County Line Road offers free parking, and the tracks run along the east side of town.

The Palmer Divide is the elevated ridge separating the South Platte River drainage to the north from the Arkansas River basin to the south. At 7,225 feet, the air at Palmer Lake is thin and dry — diesel exhaust plumes billow dramatically on cold mornings, and locomotive horns carry for miles across the open terrain.

The namesake lake sits at the western edge of town, framed by ponderosa pine and scrub oak on the slopes of Ben Lomond Mountain. The lake served as a critical year-round water supply for steam locomotives climbing the divide in the 19th century. To the west, the 14,115-foot summit of Pikes Peak dominates the skyline, providing a spectacular backdrop for southbound train photography. To the east and north, the landscape opens into rolling grasslands sloping toward the Front Range plains.

Ambient noise is remarkably low between train passages — Palmer Lake is a small, quiet community of around 2,800 residents. The sudden arrival of a loaded coal train laboring up the grade, exhaust stacks barking under full throttle, creates a dramatic contrast that makes each movement feel like an event.

The Joint Line handles approximately 25-35 train movements per day, with roughly 75% of traffic belonging to BNSF Railway. BNSF designates this corridor as its Pikes Peak Subdivision; Union Pacific calls it the Colorado Springs Subdivision. Both railroads have full trackage rights over the entire line.

The dominant traffic is coal: unit trains of 100-130 cars hauling Powder River Basin coal from Wyoming southbound to power plants in the region, with corresponding empty northbound returns. Beyond coal, expect BNSF intermodal stack trains, mixed manifest freight carrying automobiles, grain, and chemicals, and occasional crude oil or ethanol block trains. UP contributes its own manifest and intermodal traffic, though BNSF runs considerably more trains in any given 24-hour period.

Passenger service is essentially absent. Amtrak's Southwest Chief routes through Trinidad and La Junta on the former Santa Fe transcon, not through the Joint Line. However, occasional reroutes during maintenance or weather events can bring Amtrak consists through Palmer Lake — these are rare treats worth celebrating if you catch one.

The north-south track alignment at Palmer Lake rewards photographers throughout the day. Early morning light illuminates southbound trains head-on with warm tones, while late afternoon golden hour backlights northbound consists against the Rampart Range and Pikes Peak.

The south shore of Palmer Lake itself provides a slightly elevated broadside angle where, in calm conditions, locomotive reflections appear in the water — this works best at dawn before wind picks up. From the hillside west of town, a moderate climb rewards with a panoramic composition framing northbound trains against Pikes Peak during late-day light. Near the north end of town, public pull-offs along the road offer telephoto angles on trains cresting the summit grade.

Because the tracks sit at the transition from double to single track, this area also provides opportunities to capture meets and crossover moves that add operational interest to your shots. A 70-200mm zoom covers most compositions from roadside; longer glass (300-400mm) is useful for compressing distant trains against the mountain backdrop. The generally clear Colorado skies and absence of tall structures mean wide-angle landscape shots work well too, especially with dramatic cloud formations common in afternoon thunderstorm season.

Palmer Lake's railroad history begins in 1871 when General William Jackson Palmer's Denver & Rio Grande Railway — then a 3-foot narrow-gauge line — pushed south from Denver through the divide en route to Colorado Springs and eventually El Paso, Texas. Palmer Lake was a critical stop: the lake provided the only reliable year-round water supply on the summit for steam locomotives that had exhausted their tenders climbing the grade.

The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway arrived sixteen years later, reaching Palmer Lake in September 1887 with its own parallel line. The two railroads competed fiercely, their tracks crossing over each other at three locations including one just north of Palmer Lake. The rivalry ended during World War I when the United States Railroad Administration ordered the two lines operated as a single double-track railroad between Denver and Pueblo — creating the "Joint Line" arrangement that persists today under BNSF and Union Pacific ownership.

In the mid-1970s, declining traffic led to the abandonment of the Santa Fe's line through Colorado Springs, partly incentivized by the city's desire to eliminate street-running operations. The Palmer Lake to Crews segment was converted to bi-directional single-track in 1974. Today, remnants of the early railroad era remain in Palmer Lake, and the Palmer Lake Historical Society at the Lucretia Vaile Museum (66 Lower Glenway Street) preserves artifacts and stories from the town's railroading past.

Palmer Lake combines three qualities that are hard to find together: genuine Class I mainline volume (25-35 trains daily), spectacular mountain scenery (Pikes Peak as backdrop at 14,115 feet), and effortless drive-up access directly off Interstate 25. Unlike remote mountain railroad passes that require long hikes or 4WD roads, Palmer Lake puts you trackside within minutes of leaving the highway.

The summit location adds operational drama absent on flat-ground mainlines. Every loaded coal train arriving from the north has been fighting the grade, running at reduced speed with locomotives at high throttle — you can hear them coming long before you see them. Southbound empties and northbound loads create an asymmetry in sound and speed that keeps each train passage distinct. The pinch point where double track transitions to single track means dispatcher-managed meets happen regularly, giving railfans a window into real-time railroad operations.

The town itself is a pleasant base for a railfanning visit: small, walkable, with a few restaurants and the Lucretia Vaile Museum celebrating local history including the railroad heritage. The nearby Santa Fe Regional Trail follows the old AT&SF right-of-way for 16 miles south to Colorado Springs, offering a unique perspective on the corridor's railroad archaeology.