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The Siding Of
Gilluly


West to Narrows

Siding Gallery Homepage

East to Soldier Summit

The Siding Gallery, by design, does not show any trains (unless it is unavoidable) in pictures of the sidings. This is so you can see the layout of the land and get your own ideas on how to take pictures of trains. However, if you'd like to see pictures taken from various spots at this siding, then you can Search the Photo Gallery for pictures here on ColoradoRailfan.com!


The siding of Gilluly is located at milepost 661.0 on the Provo Subdivision.Like Kyune, Gilluly is a "center siding", meaning the siding track runs in between main oneand main two. Gilluly is, in my opinion, one of the truly amazing railroading areas to see.Until you can schedule your trip to Gilluly, hopefully this gallery will help!

An interesting facet of Kyune (and Gilluly, further west) is the fact that the sidingis located in between the two main tracks, as apposed to on either side of one ofthem like at Solider Summit. At Kyune, access to the siding is easily attainable fromeither main track.

     
An excellent way to get an idea of how massive Gilluly is through the use of aerialpictures. The two pictures above show 4 miles (left to right) of the area of Gilluly. Thepicture on the right has been augmented to show the way to Soldier Summit as well as theway to Provo. I have also augmented the siding of Gilluly itself with an orange line.
Above pictures from TerraServer atwww.terraserver.com


Picture 1
We start Gilluly at the west end of the siding. This picture looks east along track 2.Because of it's curved nature, whether a train is an eastbound or a westbound, it istraveling geographically west when leaving Gilluly. This means that, in general, afternoonand evenings will be better for pictures of trains leaving the siding.


Picture 2
This picture is kind of cool, particularly with the airplane streaking through the blueUtah sky in the background!


Picture 3
Time get out your favorite paint program and zoom in a little! If you zoom in on theleft-hand signal just behind the lower search light, the silver box (which isn't super clear)is actually the silver control box at the east end of the siding!


Picture 4
Still at the west end looking east, you can see US highway 6 rising from below track 2.Because the road is not nearly as restricted in grade as the rails (obviously), US 6 takes aslightly more direct route to Soldier Summit!


Picture 5
Here is another picture (similar to 3) that has the west end of Gilluly in theforeground, and the east end in the background. The east end control box is justabove and to the right of the [brown] telephone pole.


Picture 6
There is some very interesting symmetry regarding trains. Look down the points of a switchtoward a frog is one of the best representations of that! This is looking eastbound throughthe turnout from track 2 to the siding.


Picture 7
The beginning of the west end of the siding. The leads from the two main trackscome together to form the siding in this picture.


Picture 8
This picture shows all three "tiers" of the climb up toward Soldier Summit. Inthe foreground is the west end of the siding. Rising up (from left to right) in the backgroundis the east end of the siding. This is marked by the distinct cut alongside the mountain.Finally, the upper level of Gilluly can be see about two thirds up the left side of the picture,by the brown colored cut.


Picture 9
The west end of Gilluly is just short of a bend to the right. The west end of the sidingreally marks the end of what can be considered the loops at Gilluly. From here, the trackscontinue on toward Provo and eventually Roper (Salt Lake City).


Picture 10
There is indeed a house track located off of main 2. The house track is onlyaccessible from the east and then slowly runs into the dirt and vanishes.


Running eastbound through the siding naturally brings us to the east switch.Eastbound trains must climb a 1.7 percent grade to make it up to the east switch. Evenafter that is accomplished, the grade does not level out until the top of the hillat Soldier Summit.


Picture 11
One interesting thing about these control boxes is that they never seem to stayin the same place for long! If you look very closely in this picture, you can seeon the side the word "SUMMIT" has been painted over. This control box was once atSoldier Summit. This is not the only example of this either. The control box at thewest end of Tennessee Pass was once at Ralston Road in Arvada!


Picture 12
Here is a shot looking down the grade from the east end of Gilluly. Now, althoughthe camera is looking east geographically, a westbound train would in fact be headingeast through here! The bridge in the picture is US Hwy 6 running over the tracks.


Picture 13
Union Pacific has been relaying some ballast, as is evident in this picture. Thisis looking just east of the east switch at Gilluly. This picture was taken with Kodak200 Gold film around 11am in late March.


Picture 14
Another picture taken in March, the area is not nearly as green as picture 11,taken in late May. Here, the lead runs from main 1 to the east end of the siding.


Picture 15
The bridge running over the tracks can clearly be seen in this picture. By track,the bridge is roughly 4,000 feet away!


Picture 16
The picture of the block signals at the east end of Gilluly turned out very well.There is an embankment [track wise] north of the siding, which is where this picturewas taken from. You can very clearly see the tracks continuing west along the mountainin the background. If you look carefully in the middle of the right most signal, youcan see the control box at the west end of the siding!


Picture 17
Finally, we leave Gilluly with this picture of the bridge! It is veryinteresting having three tracks running in such close proximity in the mountainsup a steep grade! There are several good places from the bridge to capturetrains on the curve you see here.


GILLULY STATISTICS
Subdivision.. Provo
Milepost..... 661
Length....... 7,900 feet
Speed........ 30-25
Dispatcher... DS-78
AAR.......... 23 (160.455)
House Track.. Yes (track 2), approx 750 feet
Branches..... None
Grade Xing... None
Access Road.. Yes, Full Length (Railroad Access Only)

EAST SIGNALS
Westbound......... Approach Lit
Eastbound Main.... Approach Lit
Eastbound Siding.. Approach Lit

WEST SIGNALS
Eastbound......... Approach Lit
Westbound Main.... Approach Lit
Westbound Siding.. Approach Lit

Date Added: 5/28/2001
Last Data Update:
Last Picture Update:

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