La Junta Subdivision from La Junta to Newton
With the yard on the north side of the line, there are two platform tracks (with a platform between them as well as on the south side) and two other tracks between the station and the yard tracks, the brick depot at La Junta (MP 554.9) station is located on the south side of the tracks with the town beyond it, and there is a spur on the south side, east of the depot. At the station, the line is Double Track, Automatic Block Signals (ABS), with a speed limit of 40 mph. Almost immediately, the speed limit rises to 79 mph for passenger trains and 60 mph for freight trains, there are Intermediate Signals just east of the station, a spur on the south side trails in, and then another spur trails in on the south side, there is a road bridge overhead, and a bridge over a stream, and at CP5540 (MP 554.0), where the yard ends, the line changes to Two Main Tracks (2MT), Centralized Traffic Control CTC. The line as far as Las Animas Junction is shared between the ex-ATSF Northern/Passenger Transcon and one of the directions of the BNSF Coal Line between Wyoming and Texas (hence the CTC).
There is a dirt road grade crossing, a cement plant on the south side, and the line turns east-northeast along the Arkansas River valley, there is a dirt road grade crossing, a spur diverges to a tank farm on the south side, there are Intermediate Signals, the tank farm is alongside to the south, and there is a bridge over a gulley. The line drops to single track, CTC, with a speed restriction on the turnout, at Casa (MP 550.7), there is a dirt road grade crossing, US 50 alongside to the south (for many miles to come), a dirt road grade crossing, a bridge over a culvert, a dirt road grade crossing, a bridge over drainage, and a dirt road grade crossing. The line continues through Intermediate Signals at Hadley (MP 545.9), past a bridge over an irrigation canal, and Intermediate Signals, and turns due east past Intermediate Signals at Riverside, two dirt road grade crossings, a detector at MP 538.4, two dirt road grade crossings, a road bridge overhead as US 50 crosses from the south side to the north side, West Las Animas, where the Arkansas Valley Railroad that had run parallel on the south side from La Junta once crossed at grade as it turned northeast and then north, the town of Las Animas on both sides, and the 8,300 ft. siding on the south side at Las Animas (MP 536.0), with two grade crossings and a dirt road grade crossing within the siding, where there was once a wye connection with a line north to Waveland on the north side of the Arkansas River (which still parallels on the north side of the main line), followed by a dirt road alongside to the south and a through girder bridge over a flood plain just west of the junction.. At Las Animas Junction (MP 533.6), the line to Boise City, OK, and Amarillo, TX, now one of the directions of the BNSF Coal Line between Wyoming and Texas, turns away to the south while the main line continues east.