Orsa in Mid-1970's and Now in 2021 in Tales of the Jointed Track

I posted about the Larkspur bridge. There was a BN Taconite pellet train, going over. While I was looking for that picture, I stumbled on an Taconite train at Orsa. This was on a sunny Friday or Saturday morning. The Brakemen came off of the Extra Boards, I was set up off the Fireman’s board, due to being the only rested promoted Engineer. Bob Morley the Conductor, marked up and his turn was out of town. So he was asked if he would go on this and he did. The picture shows two BN SD-45’s and a BN SD-40 on the Mainline at Orsa. We are stopped for a Tie gang, which was coming back to Orsa to clear for us. We had a gang order and stopped for the flagman. The signal was Red, due to the switch being thrown for siding at the south switch. I took the picture. The guy in engineers seat was the head brakeman Billy Hugh. You can clearly see the scrap wood ties to the left of the picture. The rectangle to the left near the third unit, is an old wood speed board for the 30 mph curve at MP 705.5, just north of the north switch at Castle Rock. You can see the country side is not like it is now

The above picture is basically where I stopped the Taconite train. You can see Castle Pines in the background. I am standing in the High School Parking lot. There is a new overpass over the “mains” and an interchange on Highway 85. A significant difference in about 43 years. The city of Castle Rock is about four and a half to five miles further south.